I had an idea as I was heading into the theatre - somebody missed a real opportunity to make a 'Die Hard'-style action movie entitled Misbehaviour. And then I remembered the 1995 film No Contest, which is that movie. Ugh. Anyway, onto the review...
London, 1970. Activist Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) comes up with a plan to infiltrate and disrupt the staid Miss World competition, which plays to a worldwide TV audience of 100 million. On the night, the protest puts the Women's Liberation Movement on the map, while Grenadian contestant Jennifer Hosten (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) became the first black contestant to be crowned Miss World.
2020's Misbehaviour is an ensemble comedy based on a real-life incident: the Women's Liberation Movement's protest at the 1970 Miss World competition, an event which would also see the crowning of the first black winner, Hosten aka Miss Grenada (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).
I enjoyed the movie but I could not get over the feeling I was watching the Richard Curtis version of the story. I think the events of the last couple of years, along with a lot of reading, has made me incredibly cynical towards movies like this.
It can be hard to balance history with the dramatic requirements of a classic genre narrative, particularly when that movie touches on the development of a movement. And when that movie wants to be a commercial entertainment, the possibility of challenging ideas and nuance (such as different ideas of feminism and ways to enact structural change). Misbehaviour is certainly watchable, but it feels like it is set at a simmer, when it should be at a boil.
Tonally, I was a little lost. The movie seems to be trying to encapsulate both the degradation the women face and also the excitement of the contestants. It is an ambitious attempt to present a multiplicity of women in different positions of power and privilege.
It is a good idea but I was struggling to figure out what the through-line of the movie was. The movie moves between Sally, Jennifer, host Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear) and Miss World founder Eric Morley (Rhys Ifans), so we get an overview of the event, but the cumulative effect is a bit diffuse.
The movie feels like it wants to be a feel-good story about underdogs taking on the system, but the filmmakers' approach felt too broad. During the initial sequence showing the formation of the Women’s Liberation front, the filmmakers dub in ‘Respect’ by Aretha Franklin. It is such a cliche, I thought it was going to be a set-up to some kind of joke, but it is just an obvious needle drop.
The presentation of the finale, especially the score, make it feel like a great victory, but it seemed like the scene needed a montage of different people around the world reacting to seeing the events on TV.
I feel like I am being too harsh, but it does feel like a much bigger story that has been squeezed into a movie format. There are so many interesting characters and elements to the story, that the filmmakers' decision to focus on everyone diminishes their impact.
The story might have worked better as a miniseries - Jennifer and Pearl Jansen aka Miss Africa South (Loreece Harrison) feel particularly shortchanged, considering what happened at the end of the event.
While the movie is not hard-hitting, a few moments are clearly meant to hammer home the reality of 1970 for women: Sally’s university supervisor staring down the camera as he nonchalantly dismisses her thesis topic (women workers) as too niche; the sequence during the contest when the contestants have to turn their backs on the judges so that they can inspect their rears. The camera focuses on the panning of the TV camera, the faces of the audience, and the gazes of the judges before showing the contestants.
In another scene Pearl talks to Jennifer about the how the South African government have given her strict rules on what to do during the competition, and have threatened to ban her from returning home if she breaks any of them.
As far as the acting goes, most of the performers are good, with one surprising exception.
I have not seen Keira Knightley in anything in awhile - she acquits herself quite well as Sally, the reluctant initiator of the Miss World protest. She has a fine rapport with Jessie Buckley as the more radical Jo Robinson, who leads the commune of women who infiltrate the event. Their dynamic is the one time the film really tries toe explore the ideological differences between the various movements which fall under the banner of Women's Liberation.
It is always good to see Gugu Mbatha-Raw in movies, and she provides a warmth and spark to Jennifer Hosten. However, I could not help feeling like this role feels too small for her.
There is a moment midway through when someone announces that Jennifer's age is 22. I spent the rest of the movie pondering. There are few roles for actresses of colour in Hollywood and the UK. Was this a missed opportunity for a younger actress to get a shot?
Surprisingly, the one big miss in the movie is Greg Kinnear. The movie's tone is a little too broad for the story, and Kinnear;s subplot as Hope feels the most like a caricature. Hope was a larger than life figure, with an identifiable schtick. Kinnear leans into Hope's familiar ticks, but I never felt the man behind the character. The moment where I really felt it is when Sally storms the stage and points a squirt gun at him. Hope retires to his makeup room and has a breakdown, but it seemed like Kinnear was not able to find the cracks behind Hope's persona.
Overall, Misbehaviour is an entertaining but slight look at an important event. It is fun, but it never conveys the impact of the event it is based on. It might be worth waiting until it is on Netflix - it feels more suited to the home format.
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