MISBEHAVIOUR (12)
HISTORIAN and working mother Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) experiences gender discrimination in her pursuit of academic excellence.
She answers the call of an outspoken wing of the Women’s Liberation Movement whose rabble-rousing members include Jane (Lily Newmark), Jo (Jessie Buckley), Sarah (Ruby Bentall) and Sue (Alexa Davies).
They plan a high-profile protest outside the 1970 Miss World beauty pageant organised by Eric Morley (Rhys Ifans) and wife Julia (Keeley Hawes).
Sally suggests the activists buy tickets to the show, infiltrate the audience and disrupt the live TV broadcast hosted by comedian Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear) with flour bombs and football rattles.
Meanwhile, Miss Grenada, Jennifer Hosten (Gugu MbathaRaw) nervously prepares to make her island proud.
Based on a true story, Misbehaviour is a timely drama of empowerment and activism, which harks back to an era which crudely defined physical perfection as a curvy 36-24-36.
Screenwriters Gaby Chiappe and Rebecca Frayn distil emotionally charged newspaper headlines from November 1970 into an entertaining but lightweight rallying cry against sexism, which preaches politely to the Me Too and Time’s Up congregations.
Philippa Lowthorpe’s film never threatens to embrace the disorderly conduct or minxiness teased by the title, serenely following a path of least resistance to shoot at sitting ducks of male chauvinism,
represented on screen by Ifans and Kinnear.
Mbatha-Raw is luminous as an internally conflicted trailblazer committed to disproving assumptions that beauty is skin deep.
Regrettably, Misbehaviour doesn’t follow her example and glides elegantly on the surface of characters’ clashing ideals.
■ Available from April 15 on Amazon Prime Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services.