Palace Nova Cinemas from 11 November.
Review by Geoff Jenke
Based on the bizarre true story of the protest-blighted 1970 Miss World contest, Misbehaviour is a charming feminist comedy from BAFTA award-winning director Philippa Lowthorpe, starring Keira Knightley.
In 1970, the Miss World competition took place in London, hosted by US comedy legend, Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear). At the time, Miss World was the most-watched TV show on the planet with over 100 million viewers.
Claiming that beauty competitions demeaned women, the activists Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) and Jo Robinson (Jessie Buckley) from the newly formed Women’s Liberation Movement, achieved overnight fame by invading the stage and disrupting the live broadcast of the competition. Not only that, when the show resumed, the result caused uproar: the winner was not the Swedish favourite but Miss Grenada, Jennifer Hosten (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the first black woman to be crowned Miss World.
A cheery film in the vein of Made in Dagenham, Lowthorpe’s Misbehaviour tells the tale of a pioneering protest, in which a global audience had witnessed the patriarchy driven from the stage and the Western ideal of beauty turned on its head.
The movie doesn’t just look at the reasons why the feminist want to stop the Miss World competition, but also at various competitors reasons for going in the competition. For some it is an escape from “ordinary” life, for others a chance to win money and do something with their life.
Stellar performances carry the movie. Rhys Ifan as Eric Morley, the man who started the Miss World competition, excellently portrays a man, who is according to his wife, forever “living in the ‘50’s”. Greg Kinnear’s portrayal of Bob Hope is brilliant while at the same time cringeworthy.
British movie makers are supreme at recreating period pieces and 1970 has been recreated accurately for this movie. If you were around in 1970, as I was, the fashions, sounds and even the furniture will bring flashbacks to your life, even make you cringe at times. The two roomies talking about the band King Crimson made me smile. The one thing lacking in the movie perhaps, is a good 1970 soundtrack. We get the cliched “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, but the film could have also included some 1970’s classics.
A nice touch was at the end of the film, when we were told what the main characters in the film were doing today.
There is a lot going in in the film, but in the end it delivers. Your life won’t change by watching it but Misbehaviour is a fun watchable film.
Trivia – Miss World is still going today and the current champion is Toni-Singh of Jamaica. While founder Eric Morely passed away in 2000, his wife Julia is still co-chair of the pageant.
The British Film Festival, presented by Palace returns in 2020 for its seventh year with a standout selection of films from the British Isles.
The line-up features 22 films, including some of the most anticipated British cinema of the year – from powerful true stories and literary adaptations to comedies and documentaries.
Misbehaviour – Part of the British Film Festival – Season opens November 11 for a very short season at Palace Nova cinemas.
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