Misbehaviour

True story of the women's rights group that disrupted the 1970 Miss World contest. Stars Keira Knightly.

I really like the source story and Knightly does a nice job, but it's a very slow burn. It doesn't really deliver emotional passion until the end which is easily the best part of the film. Nothing special here until the great ending.

Finally a movie under 2 hours selling the message without historical exposition and over the top characters.

It's the 1970 Miss World competition in London. Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear) is to be the host. Eric Morley (Rhys Ifans) is the organizer. Women are objectified in society. Sally Alexander (Keira Knightley) is divorced with a young girl. She gets into University College London for higher learning. She joins a women's liberation movement but is trying to work within the system. On the other hand, Jo Robinson (Jessie Buckley) is looking to take down the whole system, one graffiti at a time. Miss Sweden Marjorie Johansson is the favorite but is bitter at the situation. Due to pressure against apartheid, Morley quickly adds a black contestant from South Africa in addition to the white Miss South Africa. Miss Grenada Jennifer Hosten (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) wants to be a broadcaster.

It's a bit of lesser known history. It's told in a relatively light fashion. The characters are essentially split into three groups. Knightley and Buckley lead the story of the protesters. The three contestants form the group inside the pageant. Bob Hope and Morley are the clueless men representing the male patriarchy. Each group contributes something important and interesting. There are little nuggets of greatness but they are scattered everywhere. The movie would function better and more cohesively with fewer main characters. At last, that may not be possible to tell the whole story. There is a lot of stuff crammed into this light comedic movie. I do question the final meeting between Hosten and Alexander. Maybe it happened in real life. I would think that Hosten would be better off talking to Johnasson which is more likely. The meeting in the movie feels somewhat manufactured. All in all, one learns a little bit of light history done in a light humorous way.

Misbehaviour is a great, reasonably balanced if a little formulaic comedy drama that's funny and relevant. Keira Knightly and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are both incredible. Jessie Buckley, Rhys Ifans and Greg Kinnear are all great. Philippa Lowthorpe's direction is also great, it's well filmed and well paced. The music by Dickon Hinchcliffe is really good and the soundtrack is good.

'Misbehaviour' tells an important story well; it's fairly fast-moving, has some great performances and is always engaging. While there's nothing outstanding in the filmmaking department, it's all well-done and supports its narrative by letting the characters and messages lead the way. Speaking of its messages, it has a great overall pro-equality stance that goes deeper than its feminist roots, covering issues like social class and racism. In that regard, it's a very important film for today as it's sadly all too relatable to current affairs. The flick does have a slight issue with the story it wants to tell, though. It focuses on both the liberation group and the 'Miss World competitors', especially Mbatha-Raw's Jennifer Hosten. While this does give the chance to view things from different perspectives and allows for the exploration of more themes, it makes things feel slightly muddled. Perhaps it would've benefited from choosing one perspective to focus the story through to make things a little more streamlined. Still, both storylines are effective and the thing works as a whole, but it just feels like something which could have improved the proceedings slightly. Overall, though, it's certainly worth the watch. 7/10