Kinky Boots

A hapless young Englishman (Joel Edgerton) inherits his father’s failing shoe factory. Faced with laying off all his loyal employees, he casts about desperately for something to do and meets a flamboyant drag queen (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who wishes someone would make sexy high-heeled shoes that can bear a big man’s weight. Written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth and directed by Julian Jarrold, this allegedly fact-based comedy hits all the standard whimsy buttons for these British blue-collar-little-guy-makes-good films. It’s not bad, but there’s an excruciating familiarity to it all, and the performances, while creditable enough (especially Ejiofor, in a whopping departure from his work in Inside Man), don’t always compensate. The climactic scene at a shoemaker’s fashion show is hopelessly cornball.