I'm going to point you in the direction of the following link, which is a British comedy sketch that I think brilliantly sums up my feelings about this week's film.
http://youtu.be/CUyK_J_W4BI
Look, I'm all for underdog stories and as the child of a blue-collar family I'm always happy to see stories about industrialization's slow decline. But this movie is cliche after cliche, largely because it focuses so much on the least interesting of the two potential protagonist choices. If you play it safe that way, you have to rely on a lot of tried-and-true story elements. Which is a damn shame as there's potential here for something better.
Here's the rundown on the plot. Again, because I'm behind this month I'm basing my plot rundown on an existing summary (this one available on imdb):
Price & Sons, located in Northampton, England, is a fourth generation owned and operated family business specializing in quality shoes for men. The heir apparent to the company, Charlie Price, is moving to London with his fiancée Nicola to get as far away from the company and the close-mindedness of Northampton as possible. Charlie's plans change when his father suddenly dies. Charlie ceases his London move to take over in his father's stead. Charlie learns that the primary contract on which the company had been working has long expired - something that his father Harold hid from everyone - meaning that there is no work and little prospect for work with their current line of shoes. Charlie lays off several of his employees against his personal wishes. Meanwhile, Nicola wants Charlie to sell the business to a property developer who wants to convert the factory into upscale condos. But one of Charlie's laid off employees, a young woman named Lauren, suggests he change the business model and create another line of shoes in a niche market. Upon a chance meeting with a relatively large drag queen named Lola (the awesome Chiwetel Ejiofor), Charlie comes up with the idea of specializing in fashionable boots made for the generally larger heft of drag queens. There are many obstacles to converting the business to this new model, including meshing fashionable design with the required functionality of the boots and talking a relatively conservative town and business into supporting this change. With Lola's assistance, these changes are both advanced and hindered. Don, one of the factory's key workers, is threatened by Lola (real name Simon) and proceeds to make things difficult until Lola allows him to win an arm-wrestling match that could have made Don look foolish. Charlie believes that to make the company truly successful in this new model, he has to show the boots during the Milan fashion season using the target market, drag queens, as the models. Showing in Milan takes money which Charlie doesn't have until he mortgages his house. Nicola is furious and cheats on Charlie, which causes Charlie to lash out at Lola prior to Milan. In Milan, Charlie calls Lola to apologize but it's too late: Charlie is without his models. In a desperate moment, Charlie walks out on the runway in a pair of his factory's boots. He stumbles and falls in the high heels but luckily Lola and her fellow drag queens have shown up to Milan to surprise him. As the movie ends, we hear Charlie's voicemail to Lola, which is very touching and apologetic. Lola says her goodbyes to her drag bar in London and joins the Northampton factory, now renamed from Price & Sons to Kinky Boots.
I wanted to like this movie. A lot. The opening scene with the young Simon (soon to be Lola) dancing in a pair of high heels to his father's disapproval set up the expectation that this movie was going to be about Simon/Lola. But no. Then we cut to Charlie and his dad and for the majority of the film the story belongs to them. Or to Charlie at least, and the idea of dealing with paternal expectations. Both Charlie and Simon/Lola deal with this father-son dynamic. The problem, of course, is that a man being coerced into taking over a dying business in which he has no personal interest is FAR AND AWAY less interesting than a man dealing with his father's disapproval at his gender identification. There were so many scenes that touched on Simon/Lola's difficulties but went nowhere. At one point in the movie Simon (he's dressed as a man at this point) confesses to Charlie that he was trained to be a boxer. And he was apparently pretty damn good. See, THAT's the movie I want to see. Okay, that movie was done in Beautiful Boxer, but how many people have seen that? Compared to the number of people who have seen The Full Monty, Calendar Girls, Saving Grace, etc.? We've all seen the British industrial underdog movie. We haven't all seen the British heavyweight boxer who really wants to be a woman. Compared to the drama inherent in Lola's life, Charlie's life seems pretty run-of-the-mill, if you'll pardon the joke. Lola is by far the more interesting protagonist and it was a mistake to concentrate on Charlie instead.
The biggest problem, though, comes in what Mitchell and Webb refer to in the sketch I linked above. This movie is one ridiculous cliche after the other. I can't count the number of times I rolled my eyes at the predictable, heavy-handed moments of drama and tension in this film. Or the tired old jokes. Pretty much every moment announces itself and goes through the motions. The crazy, kinda hilarious thing is that some of these cliche moments are completely unmotivated. Charlie discovering Nicola cheating is handled by one of the worst examples of forced coincidence you'll ever see. Charlie getting mad at Lola for showing up to a dinner in a dress is ridiculous. Yes, the plot required that Charlie and Lola be at odds so that she can run in during the third act to make the last minute save. But there's no reason for Charlie to be upset by Lola wearing a dress. That's what Lola has done the entire time Charlie has known her. In fact, I was impressed by the character's LACK of reaction to Lola's drag show the first time he stumbles across it. It's like the movie has to make Charlie a homophobe in that moment, not because the character IS a homophobe, but because the cliche requires that the two characters be at odds. Those are just a few examples of how awful the cliches are in the movie and how much they affect it. It's not just a cliche that's bad (many of the best movies deal in a cliche or three), it's a cliche that drags down everything around it.
Which isn't to say that Kinky Boots is entirely a bad film. Chiwetel Ejiofor is frigging fantastic as both drag queen Lola and conflicted Simon. He plays like a slightly rougher version of RuPaul. While the Golden Globes are pretty much a joke, they *did* do something right by nominating Ejiofor for an award. You get the ferocity of the Lola character and the connection that she has to Simon's troubled past. You get the fondness for outsiders and the vulnerability mixed with toughness. Again, I really wish this movie had been about Lola/Simon, and that's in no small part because Ejiofor is so damn effective. Honorable mention goes to Nick Frost for playing against type (or the type that we commonly associate with him currently) as a macho dickhead. Frost has that "big lad" look to him but it's mostly played for comedy these days. It was interesting to see that aspect of his physicality played for menace (even if it was a menace undercut with humor). I also thought Sarah-Jane Potts as Lauren did a great job of inhabiting a cliche character (the pretty local factory girl). I bought that Lauren would have sufficient moxie to help keep the operation running. Potts gave Lauren a cheerful but pragmatic disposition that the character might not otherwise have displayed.
It might also be worth mentioning that the musical numbers done by Lola and her fellow dragsters were quite fun. I especially enjoyed the catwalk number, which was a medley of These Boots were Made for Walkin and a song I didn't recognize but involved boots in some way. The choreography was fun and effective and that catwalk number did a great job of acting as a fun moment AND as a way to sell the boots. I don't know if that event happened in real life, but I kinda wish it had because that would definitely sell boots to drag queens. Or anyone who just really likes sexy boots. (Incidentally, I don't know anything about shoe fashion, but I do know that I LOVED these boots. Lola says that the boots should make you think of sex. "Kinky" boots definitely work for me.)
Here are the usual mid-movie thoughts I jotted down:
- Wow, lots of freaking ads on this DVD.
- The Miramax logo makes me want to visit NYC.
- Oh man, that was Chiwetel's character as the little boy dancing in high heels, wasn't it? Pretty sure I'm gonna dig that character.
- Kinda neat to see the mechanics that go into shoes.
- Seriously, ice-cream guy? He came around my neighborhood at the EXACT moment in the movie when Charlie finds out his dad's dead. I guess that's what I get for watching a movie in the living room with the front door open.
- I know this is about shoes, but holy shit, could we ease up on the shoes already?
- Yeesh, these British "rags to riches"/factory life stories all start off the same, eh? "I believe in my town/dad/product/etc."
- If Charlie doesn't get involved with the factory girl I'll be dipped in shit. (Ed.-he does. no shit-dipping required)
- He's the son of a shoemaker. How did this wannabe rich girl get involved with him in the first place?
- Chiwetel makes a good drag queen.
- I'd be interested to read the true story as this movie feels very much like one of those "inspired by/not at all true to life" movies where conflict is created apropos of nothing.
- Ugh... the sexual tension between Charlie and Lauren is terrible and so damn predictable.
- hahaha... Charlie needs her to do internet research? Really? "The interwebs scares me."
- Okay, Chiwetel makes a FANTASTIC drag queen. In the factory, he pretty much passes. If I didn't know he was a man, I might not even realize it.
- Ugh, the boot on the button is ridiculous. Bad ridiculous, not fun ridiculous.
- "This is Northampton! It's not SoHo!" ugh... Man, there are so many cliche lines in this.
- So what are these people doing if their contract is up? Do they make other specialty men's shoes? I'm just confused about the particulars.
- Jesus, right down to the wacky old woman who doesn't care that she's a he. Could this movie be any more of a frigging cliche?
- But Charlie knows that's a lie, right? If his father intended to sell the factory, why didn't he? What difference does it make to the agent if it's the son and not the father? That makes no sense to me. Did his father want a higher price? I'm so confused about this.
- Letting Don win was a cliche, but at least it played genuine. The actors did a good job with making it feel like a real moment.
- Why are the workers mad at Charlie for accurate criticisms? ARE the stitches crooked?
- Do they really need the button since Charlie is yelling? Seems unnecessary. An open window could've achieved the same purpose.
- I like that the Frost character "changes his mind" about Charlie and not Lola. Again, every time this movie plays a beat that's NOT cliche it's good.
- Ah fuck, seriously? Charlie ended up at the same restaurant as Nicola? Frigging forced.
- Why did he take it out on Lola? I get that Charlie's upset, but Lola's not even close to the target.
- "Does he look sexy?" "He does to me, George." GAG ME
- I don't like the "last minute save" thing in movies where the character who has been wronged by the protag decides to look past it as the "bigger person". It doesn't ring true. Bastardry should be repaid in full.
- Wait, so Charlie apologized in a voicemail? We should have heard that voicemail as it happened to motivate the last minute save. There's no benefit to holding that information back. We already know that Charlie's show will go well, what's the difference if it's Lola in a last minute surprise?
Does the movie address the theme? Sort of. Lola is the cross-dresser and is an integral character, but certainly not the primary protagonist. The movie is mostly about Charlie and his hang-ups when it should have been about Lola/Simon. I know: broken record. Sorry, I was just annoyed at this.
In the end, I don't think Kinky Boots is worth your time. There are far better movies about cross-dressers around that don't waste your time on the British underdog bullshit. I suppose if you really like Chiwetel it's worth a look. I personally really enjoy the man's work and was happy to sit through what was an otherwise sub-par movie, but I won't be repeating this experience.
Until next time, when we have Connie & Carla to watch!
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