Kinky Boots (2005)

Although Kinky Boots was made in 2005, it's a great movie for the current recession. When Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) inherits the family shoe business in Northampton, England, he soon discovers that his father has gone on producing shoes for which there are no buyers. While he is sadly laying people off (making them redundant, in the British phrase), one young employee, Lauren (Sarah-Jane Potts) urges him to reinvent the product -- instead of making traditional men's shoes, find a niche market and make something new. Charlie returns to London, where he and fiancee Nicola have gone to pursue her career, and encounters Lola/Simon, a drag queen performer (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who once trained as a heavyweight boxer and understandably has trouble finding suitable shoes. Through various ups and downs Charlie, Lola/Simon, Lauren and the factory workers struggle to get a line of sexy shoes ready for the big shoe fair in Milan, while Nicola (Jemima Rooper) wants Charlie to sell the plant to a real estate developer. At the last minute, things start to go pear-shaped, but in the end everyone learns something and there's a fantastic runway scene.

The film is based on a true story and was filmed in a real Northampton shoe factory. Beyond the theme of workers and boss working together to save jobs, there's a further important question asked and answered: What does it mean to be a man? Charlie, Lola/Simon, and factory worker Don (Nick Frost) all find their own surprising answers to that question. This is a feel-good movie with fine performances, especially by Ejiofor. Although I had seen him in Amistad (1997) and Love, Actually ( 2003 ), I didn't recognize him and assumed that, like Lady Chablis in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, he really was a drag queen. He is amazingly believable and I'd go see Lola's show any time!