FILM OF THE WEEK
Misbehaviour
Cert: 12A; Now showing.
There is something a little off about Keira Knightley, an actress moneyed to the hilt in cosmetic endorsements, starring in a story that trades in the oppressive history of beauty ideals. Nonetheless, we must put such things to the side going into Misbehaviour, a spirited UK film which tells of the fledgling women’s lib movement that bombarded the 1970 Miss World competition in London’s Royal Albert Hall.
There are indeed moments in Philippa Lowthorpe’s film that begin to raise it above the obvious own-goal that such a premise serves up in these times. The problem is there aren’t enough of them.
It all takes place of course in the age of unreconstructed patriarchy, where concepts of women being paid equally and aspiring to positions in society higher than housewives or eye-candy are the stuff of make-believe. Meanwhile, the Miss World show is the biggest thing on the box, beloved globally by men and women alike.
Knightley plays fed-up academic Sally Alexander. She crosses paths with Jo (Jessie Buckley), whose approach to female empowerment is laced with punk antagonism.
Uniting them is the looming spectre of the beauty pageant that will see Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear) parachuting in to slime his way through hosting duties. Taking part in the huge production is Miss Grenada Jennifer Hosten (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who must contend with the clamour from the protest while knowing what it would mean to her as a black woman to win.
Misbehaviour’s best moments occur within the prism of Hosten. Her struggle makes the sloganeering of Jo and Sally seem so glib that you come away feeling she was the true beating heart of the tale and that her character warranted a much more central focus.
Aside from this and a heated row about motherhood and sacrifice between Sally and her mum (played by Phyllis Logan), co-writers Rebecca Frayn and Gaby Chiappe keep it all pedestrian and self-congratulatory, and this feels like a cop-out. Rather than tackle the complex truth Hosten’s character presents — that feminism can mean different things to different women — we’re fed a version of events that is a little too neat and tidy, as if it was all about putting Bob Hope in his place.