Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Julian Jarrold
Starring: Linda Bassett, Josh Cole, Gwenllian Davies, Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel Ejiofor
RunTime: 1 hr 37 mins
Released By: BVI
Rating: PG

Opening Day: 11 May 2006

Synopsis :

When his father passes away, Charlie is unexpectedly left in charge of the sinking family shoe business. Believing that all is lost, Charlie suddenly meets the feisty female impersonator "Lola," who inspires him to buck tradition. As Charlie and Lola set out to conquer the brave new world of sexy cross-dressing footwear, their unlikely idea catches fire and takes them all the way to the catwalks of Milan. With a mix of brassy humor and heartwarming poignancy, "Kinky Boots" explores what happens when people who have spent their entire lives trying to fit in suddenly decide to truly stand out.

Movie Review:


From the folks who brought you Calendar Girls, Kinky Boots is quirky heartwarming comedy inspired by a true story in Northampton, England about a traditional men’s shoemaker factory transforming their conventional Oxfords to make lascivious women’s shoes made for men, all in order to save the near bankrupt family business and employment of the locals.

With his father’s sudden death, Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) is forced to leave London and move back to Northampton to become the unwilling owner of the family shoe business. The situation worsens when Charlie learns that the business is suffering and close to shutting down because no one wants to buy expensive but good quality shoes these days. Reluctantly retrenching some of the staff, plucky Lauren (Sarah-Jane Potts) tells him to go out and do something about the situation instead of just sitting around asking, “What can I do?”

As the fates would have it, he crosses path with a famous drag queen by the name of Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and thanks to Lauren’s chiding, is radically inspired to rescue everything by making women’s shoes strong enough to hold the weight of the average man. Engaging the help of feisty and compassionate Lola, Charlie undertakes a huge gamble and attempts to take on the Milan fashion scene by storm.

Written and directed by Julian Jarrold, the story centers on the lives of Charlie and Lola, two people who have nothing and yet almost everything in common. With a bit of a slow start, the story improves as it moves along, building up to show-stopping finale with a predictable end reached by unpredictable means. The characters were not stereotyped, but thankfully well developed, along with the plot being fairly realistic and well scripted.

If you enjoyed Full Monty, you will probably take pleasure in this movie even more. The cast is superb in their acting. Joel Edgerton does a fairly good job as the bewildered but determined Charlie Price who gets cheated by his fiancée and judged on by his father’s staff. His portrayal is well done, but the actor who steals the show is Chiwetel Ejiofor. Kudos and applause go to him for being such a wonderful actor in his depiction of the flamboyant Lola/Simon. Last seen in a supporting role for Spike Lee’s Inside Man, Ejiofor plays a man pretending to be a woman without the typical stereotype attached to such characters. Bringing heart and soul into the character, while at the same time, strutting with style and grace in his killer high-heeled boots and singing with an air of confidence and drama when in drag. In men’s clothing, we get to see a vulnerable side to the character, and you really feel for him when he faces the discrimination set against him from some of the other characters.

Kinky Boots is a good movie peppered with dashes of humour, emotions and heart, making this an enjoyable film that also teaches about tolerance and understanding of transgendered people.

Movie Rating:

(An uplifting film that entertains and delights, even though it gets a bit predictable at times)

Review by Jolene Tan