Kinky Boots Photo

Kinky Boots

Starring: Linda Bassett, Josh Cole, Gwenllian Davies, Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Directed by: Julian Jarrold

RS: 2.5of 4 Stars

2006 Miramax Films Comedy

Don't worry. It just sounds like another bad Sharon Stone movie. Kinky Boots trips on its contrived plot, but this blend of trash and sass is a comfy fit. Joel Edgerton (Uncle Owen in Star Wars II and III) is appealingly cast as Charlie Price, the inheritor of a British shoe factory that's on wobbly financial legs.

Charlie's chance encounter with Simon (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a drag queen who performs under the name of Lola, changes his fortunes. When Charlie makes a pair of industrial-strength stiletto boots for Lola to wear onstage, he finds a lucrative niche market. Director Julian Jarrold keeps the cast stepping lively. His secret weapon is Ejiofor, a stage-trained English actor of Nigerian descent known for his gravitas onscreen in Dirty Pretty Things and Inside Man. If you don't know yet how to pronounce his name (it's chew-it-tell edge-oh-for), get busy. He's a star in the making who rocks this sweetly predictable comedy on its nosebleed heels.