i must have seen a different film!!

Absolutely the worst movie.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Stage Beauty (2004) was directed by Richard Eyre. It's set in England in 1660. The monarchy has just been restored, and Charles II is on the throne. (In a clumsy bit of exposition, an actor runs in and says, "The theaters have been closed for 17 years. People want something new!") Of course, what they got is what we now call Restoration comedy. However, they continued to love Shakespeare, and a great Shakespeare performance could still fill theaters.Billy Crudup plays Ned Kynaston, a brilliant male actor who stars in female roles. (We all learned that in Shakespeare's time the female roles were played by men, because women were forbidden to be on the stage. I didn't realize that those laws were still in effect in 1660, but they were.) Ned is really great at what he does. He's been rigidly (cruelly?) schooled to remove every behavior from his repertoire that could be considered masculine. He's a major star. Enter Claire Danes as Maria Hughes, Ned's dresser. She has ambitions to go on the stage as well, and tries to mimic Kynaston's movements and make them her own. She actually performs on an improvised stage in a tavern, and is received very well. She wants to be the first woman to act on the real English stage. As mentioned in the movie, French women had been allowed on the stage by 1660. It's interesting--but not mentioned in the film--that these women were permitted to perform in London. However, they were booed off the stage by the audience. Apparently, the population wasn't quite ready to see women played by women actors. In the film, through a complex interaction at court, involving Nell Gwynn, the king's mistress, women suddenly were allowed to act on the London stage. (Nell Gwynn was indeed the king's mistress, and she was indeed an actor, but not in 1660, when she was only ten years old.)Because of this new ruling, Claire Danes can go on the stage as Desdemona in Othello, and she becomes a star. (A woman did, indeed, play Desdemona in 1660, so that's historically accurate.) Meanwhile, Crudup has been beaten brutally by thugs hired by a vengeful enemy, and he's no longer in demand. So, this is a classic story of theatrical crossed trajectories. (Think about "The Actor.") That's when the movie gets really interesting, and that's where I'll stop talking about the plot.Billy Crudup is superb as Ned Kynaston, Ben Chaplin is excellent as his lover, the Duke of Buckingham, and Hugh Bonneville is wasted in the role of Samuel Pepys, who keeps turning up, but never appears to be in the same film as everyone else.However, the obvious star of Stage Beauty is Claire Danes. Danes was truly charming when she played Juliet at age 17. She was 25 when she acted in this movie, and she got it exactly right. In the film, she's not a very good actor when she starts. It must have been difficult to be a very good actor playing an actor who's not very good. Danes manages it, and more. Crudup's role is more difficult and, to my mind, more central to the film. But what you'll remember is Claire Danes.We saw the film on DVD, and it worked very well. It's an excellent movie, and I highly recommend it.

A story of Shakespearean actors that takes place during the Restoration, after the Bard's death, when men who played women's roles on stage were being replaced by genuine women. The young actor being displaced in this instance is Billy Crudup, whose specialty is Desdemona, she being the wife that Othello strangles out of mistaken jealousy. The female dresser who more or less forces her way onto the stage, with the blessings of King Charles, is Claire Danes.Crudup is upset. He's spent his life struggling to master operatic feminine gestures and imitating female voices. He's gotten so confused about his own gender that he plays the female when in bed with another man. (Gasp.) Danes' character is no actress and at first merely mimics Crudup's theatrical gestures when she plays the role of Desdemona. But guess what.She teaches him how to be a man, and he teaches her how to act naturally, or at least naturalistically. When hey finally do "Othello" together, he doesn't lower her sweetly to the bed with his hands gently on her neck. He bangs her around and she shrieks as their antics destroy some furniture. Marlon and Montgomery were no more shocking to post-war audiences sixty years ago. Together Crudup and Danes transform the art of acting.I'd expected a kind of replay of "Shakespeare in Love" but this is better because it doesn't meander so much. It hangs together. It has more élan, more vulgarity (some of it pointless). There is a straightforward narrative with a beginning, a convincing conflict-ridden transition, and a satisfying end. Also it has a tantalizing glimpse of Claire Danes' left breast, in case of any doubt about her genotype. That may mean nothing to most viewers but in the interest of full disclosure I have to admit that I'm deeply in love with Claire Danes. She's not Hollywood gorgeous or sexy. Her features are a bit bulky and her blue eyes are always open, as if she'd just been pinched. But she's my kind of woman -- and rich too. Not that her portfolio is of any consequence as long as it's well endowed. I can't understand why my many proposals of marriage have gone unanswered. Probably intercepted by low-life flunkies. It's a shame too, because I'm supernally handsome myself, for a man over eighty. My five marriages simply go to prove how attractive I am. And though I'm not exactly lettered, I'm very gay and witty, especially when drunk.Anyway, it's an interesting flick and informative as well. Tim Hatley, the coutumier, deserves a medal. You have never seen such outrageous get ups. Richard Griffiths, as Sir Charles Sedley, is a wonder -- a rotund figure buried under a mound of gilt, all shaped like a football, except for two skinny calves propping him up like stilts and a wild and voluminous mop of a long wig of curly hair from which his plump, painted face peeps. That reminds me: Samuel Pepys shows up briefly. Pepys was a man of sublime good taste. He and I both frequented the same pub, The Prospect of Whitby, though not at the same time. The photography is lush and soft. The screen turns into a colorful pageant.Some nice, bitchy exchanges too. Nicely done.

"Welcome to the 17th century stage, where Ned Kynaston's (Billy Crudup) performance of 'Desdemona' in Shakespeare's 'Othello' brings the house down nightly. Ned is the 'most beautiful woman on the London stage.' That is, until the King renounces the royal edict that only men can play women on stage. Enter Maria (Claire Danes), Ned's seemingly loyal dresser, who becomes an instant star, leaving Ned to suppress his ardent feminine traits and make a man of himself," according to the DVD sleeve description.Hundreds of years ago, boys played the female parts on the English stage. This film supposes that Mr. Crudup, decades after his boyhood, still commanded the attention away from any "Othello". Well, yeah, but as a bad female impersonator. You must also believe his "training" included sex with men as a side effect. You see, when Crudup essays more manly roles, his gay goes away. Good to know. With the exception of a "who's on top" scene with Crudup and Ms. Danes, this is done with a straight face.The costumes are nice.**** Stage Beauty (5/8/04) Richard Eyre ~ Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Richard Griffiths

Billy Crudup plays Ed Kynaston - a male actor portraying women on stage in the late 1600s and frankly Crudup's acting just blew me away. He made me laugh, cry, sigh, and shake with emotions. The movie is not pretending that a homosexual can be "cured" or should be cured if he "gives it a go" with a real woman as some silly critics claim. Ed Kynaston is - if anything - a bisexual. His androgynous behavior is the result of part that and of a childhood spent learning how to be a woman. He has been taught that he is not worth anything as a man but as a woman he can be worth admiration or love. Or so he believes until Claire Danes' character Maria tells him differently.SPOILER Crudup portrays the emotionally confused man and his downfall wonderfully. And I do not mind the love-like story between Crudup and Claire Danes at all. The romance only adds that little extra to make me walk away from this movie pleased on all levels. And it is not a HEA ending - Kynaston is not "cured" or truly in love with Maria in the end. But he is finally a whole person. And she has become an actress during the process. Watch it !