Bootiful. (Kinky Boots (DVD))

Member Name: magenta23

Product:	Kinky Boots (DVD)
Date:	19/09/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Engaging charcters, fantastic cast, funny, touching and overall enjoyable with some great tunes!

Disadvantages: I didn't discover it sooner

If you think of successful uplifting British film from recent years you might think 'The Full Monty', 'Billy Elliot' or 'Calendar Girls', but 'Kinky Boots'? Maybe it's just because of the title (doesn't sound very British does it?), but it didn't really hit the big time like these, but after watching it, then starting all over and watching it again I enjoyed it every but as much as likes of 'Billy Elliot' etc.

Based on a true story, 'Kinky Boots' tells the story of Charlie, a factory owner from Northampton who has just taken over the debt ridden business from his recently deceased father. Clueless to how the businesses works, he discovers just how much trouble it's in and resorts to making redundancies to save money, saying to each employee 'what can I do?' until one turns round and says 'change the product'. A visit to London to get rid of excess stock look set to be a disaster until a chance encounter with a drag queen called Lola (what else?), reveals Charlie's new niche market.

I don't think I'm giving too much away to say this film follows in in the footsteps of afore mentioned Brit flicks in that the guys from the grim north reach the top in the end. (I'm aware Northampton it's exactly 'up north' but according to Lola, north is anything up from Tottenham Court Road.)

I think it's easy to tell that I loved this film, and yes the slightly alternative fairytale plot helped but the real strength of this film is in the brilliant cast. Perhaps not many faces you will recognise from the lead roles, but a few familiar faces to be seen in the equally brilliant supporting roles. The main cast are as follows -

Joel Edgerton as Charlie Price
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola
Sarah-Jane Potts as Lauren
Nick Frost as Don
Linda Bassett as Mel
Jemima Rooper as Nicola
Robert Pugh as Harold Price
Stephen Marcus as Big Mike
Mona Hammond as Pat

Joel Edgerton plays the mousey Charlie Price, weak but with a big heart, he's clueless and needs a little help from Lauren, played by the very pretty Sarah Jane Potts. Edgerton plays this character brilliantly, as an audience we are with him and want him to succeed, crucial in any film of this nature.

Most people will recognise Nick Frost (of Shaun of the Dead fame) as the butch, transvestite hating tough guy of the factory, Don. He leads a great group of people who make up the Price factory workers.

The real star of the show though is Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Lola, and Simon, Lola's off stage name. Ejiofor plays both Simon and Lola with equal success but still including enough of each in the other to show they're the same person deep down and we sympathise with both Simon and Lola as an audience. Lola is a fantastic character, and we see her at her best in a London club as she does her cabaret act, witty and hilariuosly bitchy, Ejiofor delivers the lines to perfection. This may as well be classed as a comedy, as all the scenes involving Lola doing her thing make me laugh out loud.

Of course apart from just portraying a demanding character, the part of Lola demands a big voice and Ejiofor delivers on this too. The musical numbers in this film are really powerful, with a number of perhaps obvious choices, 'These Boots are made for Walking' and 'In these Shoes' as two examples. In looking around on the interent after seeing this film, there is talk on some pages of this being made into a musical for the stage. I think this could be a real winner, especially with someone as charismatic as Ejiofor in the lead. I can almost see it as a Rocky Horror type outing, not just for it's cross dressing references. Everyone turns up in drag or at least on outrageous boots, with Lola being Kinky Boots' Frank n Furter!

The DVD of Kinky Boots contains an interesting mini documentary on 'The real Kinky Boots factory'. As I mentioned this is a true story - of the shoes factory Divine, and aswell as being filmed in an authentic working shoe factory a number of the workers from the real Divine factory featured as factory workers in the film. A nice touch I thought.

Overall, if you like a feel good film with a witty script, talented performers and some great musical numbers then give Kinky Boots a try. I'm still baffled as to why it didn't go bigger and why some critics panned it so. Yes, it's formulaic I suppose, but is that such a bad thing? Not every film needs to keep you guessing to be enjoyable.

I bought my copy from HMV, for £5 -bargain. Shop around though as I've seen it some places for over £15.

Summary: Brit flick at it's best.