Fitting Footwear

Kinky Boots

Directed by Julian Jarrold

A working class face stares back at Simon (Chiwetel Ejiofor) from his mirror, but what he sees is a fabulous self-invention-Lola, the enterprising London drag queen of Kinky Boots. Credit Ejiofor's compassionate performance for turning LGBT homilies into a humane regard of the class struggle.

Brit filmmakers have recently perfected the self-help genre (a cinematic equivalent to socialized medicine?) that Americans typically dismiss as Capra-corn. The sociological problem of sustaining a livelihood while pursuing personal dreams is such an elegant, seamless part of Kinky Boots that only the film's gender politics seem contrived.

Simon/Lola helps a Northern boot manufacturer save his tannery by designing outré footwear, hip-high red patent leather boots with rattlesnake trim and a slip-pocket for hiding a riding crop. This discovery of a hidden vocation becomes the foundation of Simon/Lola's self-esteem. Proclaiming "two-and-a-half feet of irresistable, tubular sex!" is an innuendo, but it's also an artisan's pride.

Because manufacturing is outsourced from the American imagination, there may be a tendency to underrate Simon/Lola's transformation from cheap exhibitionist to artist, but this is no trite Billy Elliot. When Simon/Lola tells a co-worker "I wouldn't want you to walk into the factory and feel you weren't respected. I wouldn't want anyone to feel that," it resonates.