In 2012, a musical called Kinky Boots hit the stage, and it reached Broadway by 2013. There it earned a bunch of Tony awards and also helped revive the dormant career of 1980s pop star Cyndi Lauper, as she wrote the show’s score.

Unknown to many – well, to me, at least - Boots first saw life as a 2005 film out of the UK. Based on a true story, the movie takes us to Northampton.

For generations, Price & Sons made conservative footwear for men. However, these shoes become out of style and the business teeters on the edge of bankruptcy.

Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) needs to find a way to reverse this trend, and he stumbles into a potential solution during a chance encounter with Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

A drag queen, she struggles to find snappy high-heeled shoes that work for a person of her size. Charlie senses an opportunity to fill a niche, so the pair join forces to design footwear for this market and save the business.

Look up “formulaic” in the dictionary and you’ll likely find the poster for Boots. While not an unpleasant journey, it finds nary a surprise along the way.

From start to finish, Boots ticks off every cliché box one can imagine. If I tried to list all these trite domains, I’d need a new hard drive.

All of this exists in terms of progressive baby steps. While Boots wants to challenge various notions of gender and the like, it does so in the most minor of ways.

Granted, I might judge the film too much from the POV of 2022 vs. that of 2005. Though only 17 years ago, a lot has changed in terms of how the public views the social issues depicted here.

As such, what seems tame by 2022 standards may have come across as daring in 2005. But probably not – as mentioned, 2005 wasn’t that long ago, and I can remember the era well enough to feel that Boots would’ve seemed less than daring then, too.

It’s the movie’s relentless adherence to genre tropes that makes it less than satisfying. While Boots offers enough charm to keep us with it, the product never threatens to offer anything with real spark or creativity.

Again, the slew of clichés and trite story/character elements become a real problem. Not a single aspect of the film veers outside of its lane, so we wind up with tale that doesn’t go anywhere we can’t easily predict.

It doesn’t help that some scenes and themes get stretched to the breaking point. Even the film’s better segments run too long and wear out their welcome.

The talented cast gives it a go, but they can’t enliven the bland nature of the film. I do admire that Ejiofor resists the urge to Go Campy, but he veers too far in the opposite direction.

This means Lola winds up as a character without much personality. A happy medium can be found between stereotypical drag queen and dull mope, but Ejiofor doesn’t locate it.

In the end, Boots doesn’t become an unpleasant experience, as the basic concept manages mild entertainment value. Unfortunately, the cliché nature of the majority of the movie makes it a slow ride.

Kinky Boots appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The film came with a decent but less than thrilling presentation.

For the most part, sharpness worked fine. A little softness crept in at times, but the majority of the image felt well-defined.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and edge haloes remained absent. I saw no signs of print flaws.

Colors went with an earthy feel and teal much of the time, though it introduced reds on a moderate basis. The tones tended to seem somewhat flat and lacked a lot of vivacity.

Blacks seemed a bit inky, and shadows felt a little dense. This became a watchable but dull image.

Don’t expect much from the movie’s flat DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. Musical performances added a little kick at times, and we got a decent sense of ambience.

However, the soundscape usually remained restrained. Granted, a character tale like this didn’t need a slambang soundfield, but stillm this one seemed a little more restricted than anticipated.

Audio quality could appear inconsistent as well, mainly because the volume levels were inconsistent. Speech tended to sound somewhat buried in the mix.

That meant I activated subtitles for the film. This occurred because I found it difficult to hear the dialogue, not due to accents.

Speech also could sound somewhat dull, and effects followed suit, as they lacked much spark or presence. Music fared a bit better, as score/songs showed reasonable range. Due to the limited soundscape and the mix’s inconsistencies, I thought this became a mediocre track.

A few extras flesh out the disc, and we start with an audio commentary from director Julian Jarrold and actors Chiwetel Ejiofor, Joel Edgerton and Sarah-Jane Potts. All four sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story/characters, sets and locations, cast and performances, costumes, makeup and hair, editing, music, and related domains.

Expect a decent but not highly memorable chat. On the positive side, the participants interact well and ensure that the discussion movies along at a good pace.

However, the material we hear never becomes especially insightful, as we find basics and not much more. That means we get a reasonable commentary that lacks real depth.

Two featurettes follow, and The Real Kinky Boots Factory spans 14 minutes, 32 seconds. It offers notes from Edgerton, Ejiofor, Jarrold, Potts, makeup artist Trefor Proud, costume designer Sammy Sheldon, producers Suzanne Mackie, Peter Ettedgui and Nick Barton, factory owner Steve Pateman, head of design William Evans, and actors Nick Frost and Linda Bassett.

“Real” examines the facts behind the movie’s story as well as narrative/characters, sets and locations, cast and performances, makeup and costumes.

Though the title implies “Real” will focus on the material that inspired the film, it mainly offers a standard behind the scenes show. It seems superficial but it comes with a handful of useful notes.

The Journey of a Brogue fills one minute, 15 seconds as we watch a shoe be made. This would feel more informative if it came with narration, so the short clip doesn’t seem especially insightful.

Four Deleted Scenes occupy a total of seven minutes, 32 seconds. These mainly offer a little more character exposition, though we also find out what happens to Charlie’s factory. They seem mildly interesting.

We can view the scenes with or without commentary from Jarrold. He tells us about the sequences and why they failed to make the cut. Jarrold adds some worthwhile notes, though oddly, “Hillside” – the second clip – lacks any commentary.

A project better known for its subsequent success as a stage musical, Kinky Boots offers a positive message. Unfortunately, it tells its tale in a trite, cliché manner that makes it less than engaging. The Blu-ray comes with decent picture and audio as well as a few bonus features. Though it keeps its heart in the right place, the end product feels stale.