Bolan’s Shoes (2023)
Director: Ian Puleston-Davies
Screenwriter: Ian Puleston-Davies
Starring: Timothy Spall, Leanne Best, Mark Lewis Jones, Matthew Horne, Holli Dempsey, Andrew Lancel
Marc Bolan remains an enduring figure in rock history: a defining voice of glam rock whose music, image and charisma continue to influence fans and musicians decades on. Bolan’s Shoes arrives as a small film that seeks to honor that legacy while telling a human story centred on memory, trauma and the ties that bind. It is, however, a film that both shines in moments and stumbles in execution.
The film opens in the 1970s. A group of children from a Liverpool orphanage — including siblings Jimmy and Sadie and their friend Penny — are taken to a T. Rex concert in Manchester. The gig is electric, and Bolan’s presence has a powerful, liberating effect on the group. But the euphoria is shattered when their coach crashes on the way home, killing several people and leaving others injured. That tragedy becomes the hinge on which the rest of the story turns.
In the present day, Penny (Leanne Best) lives in Wales and makes an annual pilgrimage to Marc Bolan’s roadside memorial. This year’s visit is meant to mark the singer’s birthday, but the visit becomes something else when Penny unexpectedly reunites with Jimmy (Timothy Spall), now a long-haired, bearded man who blows enormous soap bubbles and lives in a run-down caravan. Jimmy’s life has been hard: diagnosed with bipolar disorder and marked by years of hardship, he is both a painful and tender presence in Penny’s life. Their reunion prompts the exchange of memories, resentments and confessions that push the narrative forward.
Leanne Best and Timothy Spall are the film’s emotional anchor. Best gives several powerful performances in scenes of revelation and memory; she brings a melodramatic but sincere intensity to Penny’s pain and small triumphs. Spall, even when his accent wavers, creates a vivid and sympathetic portrait of a damaged man who both frustrates and moves those around him. Their chemistry is genuine and often affecting, and these performances are easily the most compelling reason to watch the film.
Where the film falters is its script and structure. The screenplay is light on connective tissue: key developments sometimes arrive abruptly, and the narrative can feel disjointed. Important revelations are saved for late moments but can seem forced or insufficiently foreshadowed. The relationship between Penny and Jimmy is sweet and believable in small beats, yet the film struggles to sustain a consistent emotional logic across its runtime. These structural weaknesses limit the dramatic payoff the story seems to be aiming for.
The film also leans on familiar melodramatic devices. One sequence sends the pair back to Liverpool in an obvious montage that visits the city’s most famous sights in quick succession. The tour feels like a shorthand, as if to prove location rather than explore character. Moments like this reduce nuance and invite the viewer to note the setting rather than to be drawn deeper into the characters’ inner lives.
Marc Bolan himself remains largely a presence in the background. The film deliberately avoids being a biopic, choosing instead to use Bolan as a shared cultural touchstone that connects the characters. That choice has its merits: it allows the drama to focus on ordinary people whose lives were changed by a musical icon. But it’s also disappointing that the film does not take fuller advantage of Bolan’s ideas and the spirit of his music. His influence often feels decorative rather than integral, which means the film could almost have been about any artist or any shared cultural figure — a missed opportunity to mine deeper commentary on fandom, identity and artistic myth.
Despite shortcomings, the film contains genuinely tender and humorous moments. Small scenes of human warmth — unexpected laughter, a quiet confession, a moment of forgiveness — work well and reveal the cast’s strengths. The film is at its best when it trusts those small, honest moments instead of relying on plot twists or theatrical reveals.
Score: 10/24
If you are a devoted Marc Bolan or T. Rex fan hoping for a film that celebrates the musician’s life and influence in depth, Bolan’s Shoes may disappoint. It’s not a definitive tribute to Bolan; it is, rather, a modest drama about memory, loss and the thread of connection music can create between strangers. With stronger writing and a clearer structural focus, it could have been more than the sum of its thoughtful performances.
Written by John McDonald
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