Potent clash of gender and racial activism
True events of beauty competition 50 years ago raises modern-day issues
Akiller line-up of acting talent drives this ensemble dramedy about the 1970 Miss World pageant in London.
Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) is a graduate student who has joined up with a feminism activist group led by Jo Robinson (rising Irish actor Jessie Buckley).
They resolve to protest against the objectivism of the Miss World pageant by interrupting the ceremony live on television in front of millions of global viewers.
Facing pressure from antiapartheid groups, the pageant is featuring a black South African, Pearl Jansen (Loreece Harrison), for the first time. The special guest for that year is Bob Hope (played by Greg Kinnear with an insane prosthetic nose), whose regressive comments about feminism end up spurring the protesters into action on the night. The great Lesley Manville ( Phantom Thread) plays Mrs Hope.
Misbehaviour was partially inspired by a memoir by the pageant’s eventual winner Jennifer Hosten (played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw from The Morning Show), from the tiny Caribbean nation of Grenada. It’s not hard to see the appeal of telling this story, with its potent intersection of feminist and racial issues that remain disturbingly pertinent today.
There is humour and power in the telling, especially during the denouement, which packs a considerable emotional wallop. But the film spreads its story across so many characters (including Miss World boss Eric Morley and his wife/ partner Julia, played by Rhys Ifans and Keeley Hawes) that the overall impact feels a little compromised.
It would have benefited from more time spent with almost everyone featured, especially the scrappy Jo, who is vividly brought to life by Buckley in a performance a world apart from her work in the Netflix film I’m Thinking of Ending Things.