Misbehaviour – A Solid Little English Gem

Misbehaviour is that perfect English little gem of a film that we are used to seeing right now: one that comes out of nowhere with an indie vibe, a charismatic cast and an engaging story. They became so popular and so common for the last 30-something years, it kind of established a new genre of movies in the industry such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pride, The Full Monty, Yesterday, and Lock, Stocks and Two Smoking Barrels. It’s a wonderful group to be a part of.

Misbehaviour takes place during the 1970 Miss World competition in London, hosted by the legendary Bob Hope (Greg Kinnear). The newly created Women Liberation Movement inserts themselves into the competition and protests during the live exhibition of the show as a result of the demeaning way it treats its participants. The film doesn’t only focus on the fight against sexism, it also shone a light on the men and women involved in the competition. The overall film creates serves as an interesting exploration of what it meant to take part in not only the competition but also in the greater fight for women’s rights and equality. Though this aspect found a way to bring out the true nature of these characters for better or worse.

That is the one of the best parts of Misbehaviour: it gives us so many points of view with an impressive cast of characters intended to emphasize its aforementioned themes, offering multiple perspectives that it makes the film so much richer than it could have been. It is especially rewarding to see that the contestants of the show are treated like human beings with different agendas who can still be critical while taking part in it. While Lowthorpe along with Frayn and Chiappe do a wonderful job with this film, it isn’t a groundbreaking one by any means. It’s a nice film that is well done and well acted, but that’s about it. Though the pieces are there, it never becomes something more. This amounts to a nice albeit a bit forgettable of an experience.

If there is one thing major selling point of Misbehaviour, it has to be the cast. Lowthorpe got her hands on a fantastic group of actors with most of them at the top of their game. Kinnear and Rhys Ifans are very good at their parts as Hope and Eric Morley respectively but the spotlight truly belongs to the women regardless of the size of their parts such as Leslie Manville (Dolores Hope) or Phyllis Logan (Evelyn Alexander), have their moments to shine. They all give the story so much weight and gravitas. Buckley is a firecracker and bursting with emotion as we come to expect from her as Jo Robinson. Meanwhile, Mbatha-Raw and Clara Rosager, as two of the Miss World contestants Jennifer Hosten and Maj Johansson respectively, create two grounded and strong characters and Knightley (Sally Alexander), does a decent job at anchoring the film by bringing a dependable level of empathy and believability that she is known for.

At the end of the day, Misbehaviour may not the best film of the year but nonetheless is another solid entry.

still courtesy of Shout Factory

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