Kinky Boots is a 2005 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 written by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth

Tim Firth

Tim Firth is an English dramatist, screenwriter and songwriter.Tim Firth was born, and has lived all his life in, the North West of England on the border of Cheshire and Lancashire...

, about a traditional Northampton

Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

 shoemaker, based in Earls Barton

Earls Barton

Earls Barton is a village and civil parish in eastern Northamptonshire, notable for its Saxon church and shoe-making heritage.The village was the inspiration for the film Kinky Boots and part of the film was shot here...

, who turns to producing fetish

Sexual fetishism

Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g...

ism footwear in order to save the failing family business and the jobs of his workers. The film is based on the story of Divine, which was featured in an episode of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 documentary series

Television documentary

Documentary television is a genre of television programming that broadcasts documentaries.* Documentary television series, a television series which is made up of documentary episodes....

 Trouble at the Top

Trouble at the Top

Trouble at the Top was a business-based BBC television fly on the wall documentary broadcast on BBC2.A spin off four-part series, Trouble at the Big Top, followed developments at the Millennium Dome in a similar style....

.

Plot

Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton

Joel Edgerton

Joel Edgerton is an Australian film and television actor.-Early life:Edgerton was born in Blacktown, Sydney, to a homemaker mother and a solicitor/property developer father, Michael. His brother, Nash Edgerton, is a stuntman and filmmaker...

) is trying to save the family business and travels to London to get ideas. In a chance encounter he meets sassy drag queen

Drag queen

A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...

 performer Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Chiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor, OBE is an English actor of stage and screen. He has received numerous acting awards and award nominations, including the 2006 BAFTA Awards Rising Star, three Golden Globe Awards' nominations, and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his...

), the alter ego of Simon, and sees the possible market of shoes for male transvestites. With the styling eye of Lola, Charlie leads the traditional shoe factory to design and produce numerous shoes for the catwalk in Milan, Italy.

Cast

• Joel Edgerton
  Joel Edgerton
  Joel Edgerton is an Australian film and television actor.-Early life:Edgerton was born in Blacktown, Sydney, to a homemaker mother and a solicitor/property developer father, Michael. His brother, Nash Edgerton, is a stuntman and filmmaker...
  
   as Charlie Price
• Chiwetel Ejiofor
  Chiwetel Ejiofor
  Chiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor, OBE is an English actor of stage and screen. He has received numerous acting awards and award nominations, including the 2006 BAFTA Awards Rising Star, three Golden Globe Awards' nominations, and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his...
  
   as Simon/Lola
• Sarah-Jane Potts
  Sarah-Jane Potts
  Sarah-Jane Potts , is an English actress, best known for her roles as Saint in Sugar Rush, as Ellie, Abs' on/off girlfriend on Casualty and as Jo Lipsett in Waterloo Road. Potts is also the sister of actor Andrew-Lee Potts, best known for his part as Connor Temple in Primeval...
  
   as Lauren
• Nick Frost
  Nick Frost
  Nicholas John "Nick" Frost is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is best known for his work with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg in the role of Mike Watt in the television comedy Spaced, as well as the film characters Ed in Shaun of the Dead, PC/Sgt...
  
   as Don
• Linda Bassett
  Linda Bassett
  Linda Bassett is an English actress, who is well known in the United Kingdom for her film career.Bassett was born in Kent, England to a typist mother and a police officer father. Her roles include the award-winning part of Ella Khan in the 1999 British comedy film East is East...
  
   as Mel
• Jemima Rooper
  Jemima Rooper
  Jemima Rooper is an English actress.- Background :Born in Hammersmith, London, Rooper is the daughter of TV journalist Alison Rooper. She attended Redcliffe Primary School in Chelsea, London and Godolphin and Latymer girls' school. While working on The Famous Five, she passed eight GCSEs with A*...
  
   as Nicola
• Robert Pugh
  Robert Pugh
  Robert Pugh is a Welsh film and television actor.Pugh was born in Cilfynydd and graduated from Rose Bruford College in 1976. In 2007, he co-starred alongside Genevieve O'Reilly and Geraldine James in ITV1 drama The Time of Your Life, where he played a parent whose 36-year-old daughter was...
  
   as Harold Price
• Ewan Hooper
  Ewan Hooper
  Ewan Hooper is a Scottish actor who is a graduate from, and now an Associate Member of, RADA. Hooper was the motivating force in the foundation of the Greenwich Theatre, which opened in 1969. Hooper was the founder director of the Scottish Theatre Company formed in Glasgow in the 1980s...
  
   as George
• Stephen Marcus
  Stephen Marcus
  Stephen Marcus is a British actor, best known for his role as Nick the Greek in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels....
  
   as Big Mike
• Mona Hammond
  Mona Hammond
  Mona Hammond OBE is a Chinese Jamaican actress and co-founder of the Talawa Theatre Company. Born in Jamaica, Hammond emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1959, where she has remained ever since. Hammond has had a long and distinguished stage career...
  
   as Pat
• Kellie Bright
  Kellie Bright
  Kellie Bright is an actress who is known for her roles as a child actress on British television in the late 1980s and the 1990s, and later in Bad Girls and The Archers.-Early career:...
  
   as Jeannie
• Joanna Scanlan
  Joanna Scanlan
  Joanna Scanlan is a Welsh actress and television writer, best known for her roles in various British comedy series, such as The Thick of It, Doctors and Nurses, Getting On and Little Britain.-Getting On:...
  
   as Trish

Critical response

The film received average to poor reviews on release, with critics decrying the "formulaic britcom plot." Top critics selected by Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a combined rating of 50% based on 32 reviews.

Awards

Ejiofor was nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical by the Hollywood Foreign Press which gives out the Golden Globes.

Musical

A Broadway musical version of the film is in development, with producers Daryl Roth and Hal Luftig helming the project.

External links

• Official Divine site, the shop on which the story is based (contains nudity)
• The differences from the film and real-life