Misbehaviour downplays female rage while revisiting feminist protest against 1970 Miss World pageant Like most commercial movies about feminist history, Misbehaviour has a toothless vision of protest and empowerment that’s doomed to fail its subject
The cheerfully one-dimensional
Misbehaviour puts a smiley face on female rage. A comedy flecked with seriousness, it revisits a 1970 feminist protest against the Miss World pageant in London. Bright and insistently upbeat, the movie has period polish, some swinging detail and a sympathetic cast headed by Keira Knightley, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Jessie Buckley. Like most commercial movies about feminist history, though, it also has a toothless vision of protest and empowerment that’s doomed to fail its subject because its makers don’t (can’t) risk making the audience uncomfortable.