‘Kinky Boots’ lacks kick

REVIEW

By David Germain

updated 3:08 p.m. ET April 11, 2006

It has heart and soul (and sole). What “Kinky Boots” lacks is kick.

The story of a dying British shoe factory that reboots itself as a maker of fetish footwear for transvestites, the movie rolls along pleasantly enough on the strength of fine performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Joel Edgerton, who form a solid mismatched-buddy duo.

Yet it feels like a retread of what’s become a formulaic British subgenre where dispirited folks break out of the box with an outrageous plan to boost their financial fortunes and self-esteem.

First came “The Full Monty,” with out-of-work blue-collar employees baring it all as male strippers. Then we had “Calendar Girls,” about older women posing nude to heat up sales of their charity calendar (“Kinky Boots” co-writer Tim Firth and two of the movie’s producers also worked on “Calendar Girls”).

Quick facts Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Joel Edgerton, Sarah-Jane Potts, Jemima Rooper, Ewan Hooper Director: Julian Jarrold Run time: 1 hour, 47 minutes MPAA rating: PG-13

Just recently, there was the U.S. debut of “On a Clear Day,” the tale of a laid-off shipyard worker whose attempt to swim the English Channel buoys his spirits and rallies his alienated kinfolk.

“Kinky Boots” trods rather shallowly in the footsteps of those better films. British television director Julian Jarrold, in his big-screen debut, and screenwriters Firth and Geoff Deane stick to the same old recipe with this tale based on the true story of a Brit who inherited his family’s failing shoe company and retooled it as a stiletto-heeled specialty outfit.

After his father’s death, Charlie Price (Edgerton, best known as the young version of Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen in the last two “Star Wars” movies) finds himself the reluctant proprietor of a shoe factory whose durable but bland loafers no longer have a market.

With the company bleeding money, Charlie has to do the unthinkable: Begin laying off his father’s devoted workers.

The filmmakers awkwardly maneuver Charlie into a chance encounter with female impersonator Lola (Ejiofor), who just happens to be suffering from yet another pair of women’s boots with high heels unable to support his manly weight.

You practically see the light bulb going on over Charlie’s head, and from there, “Kinky Boots” plays out with unswerving predictability, shuffling along at a poky pace.

Charlie enlists Lola as consultant on a line of exotic footwear for men who have a hankering to walk a mile in women’s shoes. The incredulous factory workers initially resist, but you know where you’re heading in this feel-good equation.

Edgerton has a subdued hangdog quality that makes him a nice straight man for the flamboyant Ejiofor (“Inside Man,” “Dirty Pretty Things”) who’s previously been seen mostly in restrained roles but here struts his stuff with comic abandon.

Ejiofor also lends a strong voice to Lola’s stage act, belting out such songs as “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” and “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.”

The supporting players feel underdeveloped and tacked on, led by Jemima Rooper as Charlie’s overly ambitious girlfriend and Sarah-Jane Potts as his chief booster among the factory work force. Nick Frost (the beer-swilling roommate in “Shaun of the Dead”) manages some comic highlights as a boorishly intolerant factory worker who forges an unlikely bond with Lola.

Earnest as the actors are, the filmmakers have not crafted the sort of brisk gait the movie needs. “Kinky Boots” stutter-steps its mild way to a bland conclusion you’ll see coming from a long way off.

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