★★KINKY BOOTS★★

Kinky Boots is a British comedy/drama movie which was released on October 7th 2005. The film was directed by Julian Jarrold whom also directed Becoming Jane in 2007. The film was written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, and the plot for the film was inspired by the true story of a Traditional English men's shoe factory in Northampton which started producing shoes and boots for transvestites in order to keep the business thriving and in order to maintain the jobs for the local community. Kinky Boots has a BBFC rating of 12 due to some sexual content and bad language. The film has an average run time of approximately 107 minutes.

Kinky Boots portrays the story of Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) whom inherits the family's Traditional Shoe Business in Northampton after his father dies suddenly. All is not well however and Charlie soon realises that the family business Price and Son's faces bankruptcy if he doesn't find another way to raise the cash in order to keep the business afloat and pay his staff. Charlie starts sourcing London for new clients and ideas in order to raise more cash and revenue for the business when he meets Lola a transvestite from Soho who has a crazy outrageous fashion sense. Lola talks to Charlie about making large sized kinky boots for the make fetish market and Charlie agrees only if Lola designs the boots. It is a bit of a far shot but Charlie and Lola decide to persevere and see if their idea launches and saves the family business…..

Charlie Price's character is played by Australian actor Joel Edgerton; I haven't watched any films in the past where Joel Edgerton plays a part. However his acting capabilities amazed me and so did the character he played, I really liked his character Charlie Price because he was sincere, genuine and an all round nice guy who thought of others before himself. You immediately sense that he would go out of his way in order to help someone out right from the start of the film and this is what makes the film as moving and heart felt as it is. One particular scene in the film which shows how caring and helpful Charlie actually is when he helps Lola when she is mugged in a street in London. There is great deal of emotion in this film and the emotion is mainly based around Charlie and Lola.

The emotion portrayed throughout the film is totally convincing and believable and I think that all the characters involved pull it off exceptionally well, mainly Charlie and Lola as they are the central characters. As well as Charlie being a very likable character you also feel really sorry for him several times throughout the whole film as he has a lot on his plate, he is struggling to cope with the death of his father and is still going through grieving transition and to top it all off he is running out of money and fast. Charlie's Fiancée Nicola is like a Cruella De Ville character and is really hard on him and quite bossy and bitchy, Nicola is a character whom you immediately hate right from the start of the film and I think that this was the way her character was meant to be portrayed.

Lola whom is the transvestite is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, I have only ever seen Chiwetel perform in one film before and that was Love Actually. Chiwetel's acting capabilities really shone in Kinky Boots as he was able to pull off the stereotypical transvestite role brilliantly and accurately. His character wasn't in your face or loud and this is what made the character one of the most sincere and believable in the film, the only loud thing about the character was the brightly coloured outrageous clothes and shoes he was wearing. Chiwetel was also a great singer and dancer in the film and he had a lot of choreographed scenes which I think he pulled off exceptionally, it was surprising to see him dance as well in the high heeled shoes he was wearing. The shoes which he wore in most parts of the film were really high and I myself would have an awful bother trying to walk in them as the heels were approximately 6 inches high and some of them had a 3 inch wedge on them as well. Again Lola was a really sincere character who you also felt sorry for as people were always judging her because she was a transvestite. However Lola never let the rude people get her down and replied to one man "I'm more man than you'll ever be, and more woman than you'll ever get" This quote just goes to show how strong her character actually is, and despite what people think of her she will always pick herself back up again.

I really liked the costumes and make up which were used for Lola and these aspects of the film were ones which really stuck out. I think that the brightly coloured clothes, shoes and make up were inspired from the 1994 film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Even the camera angles, lighting and soundtrack were all very memorable. These skills are particularly memorable when you witness the "kinky Boots" being made in the Price and sons factory, as there is a lot of upbeat music and close ups of the seams being sewed onto the PVC Boots, so much so that you could actually see every stitch being sewn by the sewing machines.

Even the performance from the shoe factory employees was excellent, they seemed to play the parts well so much so that their interpretation of shoe making was entirely believable as they all seemed to know hoe to work the factory machinery and make the shoes. I think that most of the factory workers were trained to use the machinery before filming began so as their roles were believable and portrayed what it is like to work in a factory and face redundancy.

I thought that Kinky Boots was a good British film, although a little bit long (100 minutes) at some points in the film I actually thought that the story line was being dragged on a little too long with particular reference to the bankruptcy and shoe making scenes. What could have been summed up in a few minutes was evidentially dragged out into a 25-30 minute scene which evidentially gave almost a word for word account of what happened and what needed to be done. Apart from that the story line seemed to pick up pace and was more enjoyable to watch in the latter part of the film which was approximately a third of the way through. I think it would have been a much more enjoyable film had they cut out most of the long winded scenes at the beginning of the film.

This is more of a drama type film as opposed to a comedy as there are very few funny moments and scenes in the film. The only funny parts in the film are quotes from the characters such as the Lola's quote " "I'm more man than you'll ever be, and more woman than you'll ever get" you wont be necessarily laughing out loud whilst watching the film but some parts will make you smile. Again this is another film which has a predictable story line where as some times you actually know what is going to happen before it does. Typically some of the songs used in the film are really well known ones such as, I put a Spell You, Summer Holiday and My Bonny Lies Over The Ocean which all really seem to fit in with the scenes they are used in.

If you liked films such as The Full Monty, and Billy Elliott then this would probably be a film you would like to watch. Kinky Boots DVD can be bought from Amazon and costs £4.98. Although this is a film that you would probably only watch the once as it does drag on for a while, so I would see if someone you know had the DVD and you can borrow it from them.

Director ~ Julian Jarrold
Release date ~ October 2005
Run Time ~ 107 minutes approximately

CAST
~~~~~
Joel Edgerton ~ Charlie Price
Chiwetel Ejiofor ~ Lola
Sarah-Jane Potts ~ Lauren
Nick Frost ~ Don
Linda Bassett ~ Mel
Jemima Rooper ~ Nicola
Robert Pugh ~ Harold Price
Ewan Hooper ~ George
Stephen Marcus ~ Big Mike
Mona Hammond ~ Pat
Kellie Bright ~ Jeannie
Joanna Scanlan ~ Trish
Geoffrey Streatfield ~ Richard Bailey
Leo Bill ~ Harry Sampson
Gwenllian Davies ~ Mrs. Cobb

Thanks for reading
:o) Lisa x

© just.bcoz
2008