Stage Beauty (2004)

Premise: Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is the most beautiful woman on the stage, and he is renowned for his Desdemona. Invited to dine at the palace one night by his lover, the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Chaplin), Ned discovers that the rumoured first woman to act on the stage (and play Desdemona no less) is no other than his dresser, Maria (Claire Danes). King Charles II (Rupert Everett), incited by his mistress, declares that women on the stage is no longer illegal. After Ned refuses to act with Maria, the mistress then pushes the King to make it illegal for men to act in women's roles, thus depriving Ned of his livelihood.

Also Tom Wilkinson is around and bursting with talent. He's one of the few people I can think of who can genuinely play despicable and lovable characters equally well.

Crudup! I've gotta tell ya - I didn't have much of an opinion about him until now. I've seen him in things like Almost Famous and The Hi-Lo Country, and I never made much of him before. He's got it goin' on here. As a man consciously trapped in womanhood, completely unable to express himself as a man, he's really quite compelling. As much as we like to pretend that "gender confusion" and "alternative lifestyles" are an invention of the 20th century, they very much are not, and Crudup brings new insight to a man who has chosen the beauty of women over the ugliness he associates with masculinity.

Danes, whose choices are sometimes suspect, plays brilliantly in a return to that dramatic independent vein in which she belongs. By independent I don't necessarily mean independent film but independent spirit. I think she's better off with characters that she can bring that quality to. I've even started to find that quivering chin of hers endearing.

And I don't care what a certain someone says! Everett can totally play heterosexuals without coming across as "gay". His take on that gender reformist is remarkable different than Rufus Sewell's, which I saw earlier this year, and I like the contrast. He's a hoot!

Jeffrey Hatcher's screenplay, based on his play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, is alive and questioning. His words flow smoothly with Richard Eyre's (director) camera. Eyre also helmed the acclaimed Iris, and he brings a balanced sense of comedy and drama to this film.

I do have a problem with George Fenton's score, though. It reminded me so much of Michael Kamen's Robin Hood that I ended up humming Kamen's work on my way home, not Fenton's. Bad, bad sign.

By far the best Charlesian drag dramedy I have ever seen, though. A-