ReviewMisbehaviour movie review: Keira Knightley fights sexism in delightful Miss World comedy
- In a story based on real events, Knightley is convincing as a lower middle-class single mother and student who befriends a group of militant women’s libbers
- British production uses a comedic storyline to make points about sexism and racism as the feminists flour-bomb a Miss World contest whose winners are black
4/5 stars
Politics and humour rarely make an entertaining mix outside of satire, but Misbehaviour, a British film about how women’s libbers disrupted the 1970 edition of the Miss World competition, manages cleverly to weld observations about sexism and racism to a lightly comedic storyline, simultaneously keeping the politics serious and providing some gentle humour and touching moments.
Based on true events, this film by experienced television director Philippa Lowthorpe follows an activist student as she joins an all-women commune and hatches a plot to stage a demonstration inside the competition to protest about the way it objectifies and demeans women.
Performing with both empathy and subtlety, Keira Knightley plays Sally Alexander, a lower middle-class unmarried mum who, against her expectations, is accepted at London University to study history. Alexander has been impressed by women’s libbers who, in the political vernacular of the times, were rising up against a male patriarchy which forced them to live as second-class citizens.
Alexander quickly befriends a women’s group led by the street-savvy Jo Robinson (Jessie Buckley), who convinces her that direct attacks on the system are necessary to change the status quo, rather than trying to influence it from the inside.