Charlie Price, born and raised in Northamptonshire (northern England), has been long expected to take over his father's shoe factory. When his father dies suddenly, Charlie somewhat relutantly becomes the owner/operator of Price & Sons Shoes. He also takes on a significant debt load and a product line waning in popularity. His ambitious girlfriend, Nicola, wants to encourage Charlie to find new, more lucrative opportunities, including selling the factory to a condo developer, but Charlie feels responsible for his father's loyal employees and their fate. He tries to find distributors and stores to sell the factory's outstanding inventory and place new orders, but to no avail. To Nicola's annoyance, he mortgages his house in order to raise money to pay the employees, but nonetheless has to let some of them go.
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On one of his disappointing sales trips to London, however, Charlie unexpectedly enters a drag cabaret and meets Lola, the cabaret's star performer. Lola, formerly Simon, has a flair for fashion and design. Charlie sees an opportunity to bring new life into his factory and fill the market niche for sexy footwear for drag queens. Convincing Lola to leave London for working-class Northamptonshire, Charlie re-hires his laid-off employees and starts the new product line. Along the way, Lola encounters too-familiar judgements and ignorance about masculinity and femininity, and her place in this black-and-white world.
The new footwear line, designed by Lola, is a hit, though Charlie and Lola are dismissed for their unconventional "kinky boot" line. Nicola gives up on Charlie, but his employees remain loyal and the factory takes on a new life, thanks to the extraordinary vision of Lola and Charlie.
The review of this Movie prepared by Jan Arata
