MISBEHAVIOUR
****
Dir: Philippa Lowthorpe (12A, 106 mins)
Set around the 1970 Miss World competition, this comedy drama gives several perspectives to that cheesiest of events, the beauty pageant. Keira Knightley and Jessie Buckley play Sally Alexander and Jo Robinson, members of the Women’s Liberation Movement – who are determined to disrupt the event, hurling flour at host Bob Hope, slimily played by Greg Kinnear with Lesley Manville as his wife Dolores. Alongside their tale are those of Jennifer Hosten (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Pearl Jansen (Loreece Harrison), hailing from Grenada and South Africa respectively, representing black women in an event watched by 100 million people worldwide. Rhys Ifans and Keeley Hawes play the mischievous Morleys, the married couple who ran the event with flair and a certain attitude: swimsuits are important. One person’s anti-feminist beauty contest is another’s chance at empowerment. Writers Rebecca Frayn and Gaby Chiappe, along with director Lowthorpe, manage to balance the gender and race politics with winning humour and intelligent point-scoring. Breezily acted by all and peppered with some marvellous one-liners, Misbehaviour is entertainingly unruly.
Opens Mar 13
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