Charlie Price: Joel Edgerton
Lola: Chiwitel Ejiofor
Lauren: Sarah Jane Potts
Nicola: Jemima Rooper
Mel: Linda Bassett
Don: Nick Frost
Harold Price: Robert Pugh
In his previous scripts,
Tim Firth has famously shown that there's more to the North of England than
meets the eye. From Preston Front to Calendar Girls, he puts
flesh on characters who might be clichˇd ciphers in other hands. And he's
also rather fond of placing ordinary folk in extraordinary situations to
make his point.
For this movie, he doesn't go quite so far north, stopping off at Northampton,
formerly capital of shoe-making. In fact, if you look around long enough,
you'll find a town filled with of a load of old cobblers.
The point Firth's script makes here is about the destruction of many British
industries as the public and marketing experts opt for cheaper products that
need replacing more often. The Price factory at the centre of the film makes
'Church' type shoes that last for years, but Price himself (Robert Pugh)
is getting insufficient new orders. When Price Senior dies suddenly, his
son Charlie takes over and has to decide whether to give up and sell up, or
fight by diversifying. Which is where the plot (bear with me here) twists
and turns into a tale of transvestite acceptance...
For Charlie (Aussie Joel Edgerton with convincing Midlands accent)
spots a huge gap in the market for quality women's boots and shoes to be
worn by female impersonators. Gosh! Cue lots of soundtrack action for
Kirsty MacColl's brilliant song, In These Shoes and These Boots
Are Made For Walking, not to mention the odd bit of product placement
for Jimmy Choo.
And most importantly, cue Chiwetel Ejiofor (of Dirty Pretty Things)
as the huge drag queen who goes through shoe leather like there was no
tomorrow, thus inspiring Charlie and his most dogged employee, Lauren.
It's not exactly Hobson's Choice, but Ejiofor is splendid as the outrageous
Lola, charming and horrifying the Northampton locals in equal measure as
she arrives in full, glitzy drag.
Lola sees a fellow struggler in Charlie and their plucky attitude sets
many noses (and contrived subplots) out of joint. But Lola is determined
to help Charlie retool his factory towards fetish wear, so they can show
it on the runway at the Milan Shoe Fair. Not that they don't all fall
out with each other in the process. And they also conveniently skirt
around the issues of Lola's identity. But the message is, be prepared
to change your mind.
Comedic turns by stalwart British character actors like Nick Frost
and Linda Bassett add to the texture of the 'fish out of water'
story, and Joel Edgerton (from the wonderful Secret Life Of Us)
puts in a winning performance as the sympathetic factory boss.
But this is very much Chiwetel Ejiofor's movie.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
