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Wacky Drag Queen Comedy Comes Out on DVD
The British seem to have a knack for turning
a naughty theme into a flamboyant, feel-good film that’s fun for
the whole family. Such is the case with Kinky Boots, a heartwarming tale
about the unlikely friendship forged between a black drag queen and the
recently-engaged heir to a shoe factory fortune.
Joel Edgerton stars as Charlie Price, a man reluctant to assume the reins
of the fledgling family business because of his fiancée’s (Jemima Looper)
impatience to live in London. Then, when he examines the books, he learns that
the company is in the red. With a wave of layoffs and possibly bankruptcy on
the horizon, Charlie refuses to abandon his loyal, long-time employees out of
a sense of noblesse oblige.
Finding an overabundance of stodgy wing-tips gathering dust in the overcrowded
storeroom, he snap-diagnoses the problem to be a failure to change with the times.
So, the obvious answer to these financial woes rests with offering a trendier
line of footwear.
The answer to his dilemma arrives the night he comes to the assistance of Lola
(Chiwetel Ejiofor), the victim of a hate crime at the hands of a gang of homophobic
hoodlums. The grateful transvestite, it turns out, is the headliner at a Soho
cabaret which just happens to be frequented by a gaggle of gender-benders who
are having a hard time finding glamorous high heels that can support a man’s
weight.
Fortunately, this unmet demand conveniently dovetails with Charlie’s supply-side
shoe-onomics. Though a bounty of sweet subplots are sprinkled about this well-crafted
comedy, the real reason this movie is so highly recommended is because of the
radiant performance of Chiwetel Ejiofor who’s at his very best, here, looking
every bit as if he were born to play drag queen.
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