The trailer seeks to subvert our expectations from British underdog dramas.
If there is one kind of comedy-drama that the British cinema does much better than Hollywood is the underdog story. From The Longest Yard to The Full Monty to Pride through Eddie The Eagle, British cinema is peppered with fine examples of the-feel-good stories about losers who make it big.
The trailer for Misbehaviour seeks to play on your expectations of this genre.
It starts with Phyllis Logan (Secret & Lies, Downton Abbey) appreciating her granddaughter copying the 1970 Miss World beauty pageant participants on TV. The mother Keira Knightley sporting the book "Labouring Men" by Leftist historian Hobsbawm likens it to "eating own snot".
There is a parade of the participants and there is a subtle undercurrent of sexism as they are ordered around like children by the show's organiser Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spiderman). But it is not until the group of women incensed by this blatant objectification declare to disrupt the pageant that things get more interesting.
The cast is great with Greg Kinnear as the smarmy Bob Hope with a prosthetic nose and Loreece Harrison introducing herself as the "first South African" to participate in the pageant hints at the racism involved too.
The tone is light but firm and if it plays as well as it does in the trailer, this could be a winner.
VERDICT: I'm In!