Stage Beauty

Sharon was returning movies to the video place the other night and I asked her to get a movie I would like. Twelve and a half years of togetherness paid off as she picked up a gem I'd never heard of - Stage Beauty starring Billy Crudup and Claire Danes. Here's a quick synopsis:

Set in the 1660s at a time when in live theatre women's roles were played by men, Edward 'Ned' Kynaston (Crudup) is England's most celebrated leading lady, using his beauty and skill to make the great female roles his own. But when Charles II is tired of seeing the same old performers, the ruler allows real women to tread the boards and men may no longer play women's parts. Ned becomes a virtual nobody, virtually overnight and seems headed for suicide till his ex-dresser turned actress Maria (Danes) takes it upon herself to get him back on his feet.

Crudup is an amazing actor. I had forgotten he played the rock star in Almost Famous, which was also a good performance. This one, however, is filled with subtlety as he captures the pain Kynaston must have felt losing his identity. There's been some criticism of the film for suggesting that "sex with Claire Danes will cure homosexuality". But in watching the film, it's clear that Kynaston is bisexual so that criticism seems misplaced. The truly saddest moment in the film comes when Kynaston is asked to perform one of Othello's soliloquys and he fails miserably because he has worked so hard for so many years to remove all trace of masculinity in his acting. However, he finds his inner actor at the end of the film in a staging of the climatic scene from Othello when the Moor kills Desdemona. That scene is truly heart stopping. Claire Danes is excellent as well and Rupert Everett as King Charles II is a blast. I highly recommend the film. Rent it!