Stage Beauty
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Movie Reviews of Stage Beauty
Movie Review: A Magnificent 17th Century Period Piece - and MUCH more!
Summary: 5 Stars
Perhaps thought patterns are changing and prejudices against gay characters are indeed abating. At least hearing the audience delight after viewing STAGE BEAUTY makes a case for more mainstream male actors to shed the fear of taking on roles that feature gender and sexuality variations: Russell Crowe, Colin Farrell, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem, Rodrigo Santoro, Gael Garcia Bernal, et al have all performed sensitively as gay men despite their macho image - the once small list is now respectably large. And now add Billy Crudup and Ben Chaplin to that ever-growing list. Bravo to that change.
STAGE BEAUTY (in the screenplay version of his own play 'The Compleat Female Stage Beauty' by Jeffrey Hatcher) is set in the mid 17th century with all the frills and foibles of British dandies and ladies visually intact. This is the time when female roles were assumed by male actors (the theater was simply no place for ladies to participate) and we are introduced to Mr. Kynaston (in a brilliant, multifaceted performance by Billy Crudup!) as he portrays Desdemona in Shakespeare's 'Othello'. He is attended by a dresser Maria Hughes (Claire Danes, another superlative acting achievement) who longs to act and steals away after performances in the theater run by actor Betterton (Tom Wilkinson) to a tavern where she assumes the memorized roles Kynaston performs on the royally approved stage.
Kynaston has been raised to portray women on stage (and indeed in life) and responds to men as a woman (his lover is the Duke of Buckingham - Ben Chaplin). King Charles II (a thorough-going hilarious fling for the gifted Rupert Everett) is convinced by his tart du jour to allow women to play women's roles on the stage, thus dethroning Kynaston as the actress of the time, driving him into tawdry masquerades in pubs after a severe beating from thugs beckoned by the bloated Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths). Maria Hughes thus becomes the first 'compleat female actress' and this transition between Kynaston and Maria results in desperate tutoring lessons before Maria can play Desdemona for the King. For the first time in his life Kynaston must examine his own sexuality and his successful final curtain after playing Othello to Maria's Desdemona gratefully leaves that choice up in the air.
The script is a delight, the actors are all first rate, especially the wholly immersed Crudup and Danes who could well be part of the Royal Shakespeare Company, so fine is their British sound, demeanor, and Shakespeare! The supporting cast is a kaleidoscope of jewel-like performances from Everett, Wilkinson, Edward Fox, Hugh Bonneville among others. The mood is appropriately British - all dark, candlelit stagecraft and foggy marsh vistas - and the music matches the overall picture. Richard Eyre has directed a film that deserves many kudos, but the main glory should shine on his ability to explore the spectrum of gender and sexuality with dignity, intelligence, and tremendous sensitivity. A welcome delight!
Movie Review: Stunningly Beautiful and Better Than Shakespeare in Love.
Summary: 5 Stars
Though Stage Beauty is based on the same general theme of women portraying themselves being taboo as Shakespeare in Love, I found the latter film to be a bit slow and less engrossing than this one. Stage Beauty has so much going on that it's impossible to tear yourself away from the screen for a moment, thus the joys of owning it on video are quite apparent.
I love Billy Crudup, not only as eye candy, but because he can actually act. His versatility has long amazed me in so many movies, but in this one he shows several different sides as stage actor Ned Kynaston who has built a career out of playing women since his childhood. He is the reigning star of the theater as he plays Desdemona in Othello and is considered the greatest female actor by his peers. His dresser Maria (played above and beyond even my expectations by Claire Danes) is silently in love with him and copies his every gesture and movement backstage each night before running off to mimick his role at an underground theater as well.
Upon discovering that Ned is so feminine from his theatrical training that she catches him having a tryst with the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Chaplin), she is determined to steal his thunder and his role upon King Charles II's (Rupert Everett) repeal of the longstanding law forbidding women from portraying themselves at the insistence of his coercive cockney accented mistress Nell Gwynn (Zoe Tapper) who also wants to act. This puts the beautifl Ned and several other male actors who played women out of business, and Maria Hughes quickly becomes the talk of the theatrical community as she takes over Ned's role as Desdemona. Things go from bad to worse as Ned cannot find work, especially after a beating from the ruthless, lecherous Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths) who makes Ned pay for a bawdy trick he'd played on him, and he ends up working in cheap taverns.
The silver lining is that Maria can't act as well as she thought, and she needs Ned to help her master the role as Desdemona as much as he needs to learn how to come to terms with his own arrogance and masculinity. Wonderful things happen for both of them, but I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it. There is so much going on in this movie that you will literally be glued to your seat. The characters and script are as colorful and beautiful as the scenery and the costumes. Save for a bad love scene in a barn--Crudup and Danes don't convey much chemistry--and the way in which Ned is busy deciding if he prefers men or women, Stage Beauty is a sheerly entertaining joy to behold. Billy Crudup was once expected to be the next Brad Pitt, but it's rather fortunate for him that he's not; the critics still take him seriously and, with a brave role such as this on his resume', that factor is completely to his advantage. After all, this is most decidedly his film. The rest of the cast is excellent as well, and you get the sense that everyone involved enjoyed this project. Pick it up today and fall in love like I did. Outstanding!
Movie Review: The Aesthetics of Deception
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this film the evening after seeing Being Julia and thoroughly enjoyed both. Much of Stage Beauty is based on historical material which Helen Wilcox examines in Women in Literature in Britain, 1500-1700. Jeffrey Hatcher's screenplay is based on his own Compleat Female Stage Beauty, a play first performed in 1999. We know that Edward (Ned) Kynaston (1640-1706) was among the last and reputedly the best of the male actors of female parts in dramas performed prior to the Restoration period. Following his coronation, King Charles II decreed that females would be permitted to appear on stage in roles previously performed only by males. For many male actors, the subsequent transition was very, very difficult. There are certain parallels with the difficulties that stars such as John Gilbert had during the transition from silent films to "the talkies."
What we have in Stage Beauty is a delightful presentation of that age and, more specifically, of Kynaston's struggles (brilliantly presented by Billy Crudup) to salvage his career in juxtaposition with those of his dresser Maria (Claire Danes), an unskilled but aspiring actress, who seeks Ned's tutelage to advance her own career. Frankly, I did not immediately recognize the always-superb Rupert Everett in the role of Charles II. Others in the supporting cast include Ben Chaplin (as George Villars, Duke of Buckingham) and Tom Wilkinson (as Thomas Betterton). Historically, Betterton was once highly praised for his performance in Shakespeare's Othello...in the role of Ophelia. In Stage Beauty, Kynaston plays Ophelia to Betterton's Moor of Venice. After Kynaston rejects the advances of the lecherous Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths), Sedley hires thugs to beat Kynaston so severely that he can no longer perform until his wounds have healed. Maria sees an opportunity, organizes what I guess could be called an "underground" performance of the play, and assumes the role of Ophelia herself. After seeing her performance, Charles II issues his proclamation and then....
Credit director Richard Eyre with obtaining superior results from his talented cast and crew. Simulating London in the 1660's was indeed a major task, achieved brilliantly by cinematographer Andrew Dunn, production designer Jim Play, and art directors Keith Slote and Jan Spoczynski. Of course, many of the comic devices in both Hatcher's play and in this film can be traced back to classical Greek and Roman comedies, with the female roles in all of which performed by males. For example, all manner of mischief is achieved through mistaken identity, role and gender reversals, double entrendres, elaborate disguises, no sequitors, etc. The highly literate screenplay invests the nimble narrative with style and grace as Ned and Maria proceed to the inevitable, indeed obligatory resolution. Great fun! Those who share my high regard for this film are urged to check out Victor/Victoria and Tootsie (in 1982) as well as Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Movie Review: Crudup Superb, Danes Merely Adequate
Summary: 5 Stars
Everything about Billy Crudup's performance as Ned Kynaston shows that he is one of the most versatile, flexible and believable actors on the screen today. As his character grows in knowledge of himself, he seamlessly progresses from an over-the-top actor of women's roles and the persona he has adopted to go with that ... to a man desperate after losing his profession because men are now banned from taking women's roles ... to the coach of the character played by Claire Danes ... then as actor of men's roles ... from a pretty boy to a man of emerging sensibilities and awareness of his masculinity. Perhaps also to a partial acceptance of his sexual ambiguity.
Crudup's co-star, Claire Danes, breathily and breathlessly goes about seeking a way to portray Mrs. Hughes, initially Mr. Kynaston's dresser. She is only adequate, but fortunately does not have to carry the show herself. She is surrounded and overshadowed by a supporting ensemble of talented and skilled actors. Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson and Hugh Bonneville are among those who stand out. Zoe Tapper shines in a brief role as Nell Gwynn, one of King Charles' mistresses, though her presence as a character is a historical anachronism. The direction was superb as well.
This movie is well mounted, takes full advantage of some historic sites in England and creates what is otherwise necessary to complete a picture of its time and place in history. The playwright Jeffrey Hatcher adapts his own play for the screen ... clearly he knows what he's doing. There are few scenes that are not full of words, and the dialog requires close attention on the part of the viewer. Hatcher's adaptation is not fully historically accurate, but close enough. The musical score by George Fenton is worth noting ... as always, his work enhances but does not dominate. (I particularly recall his previous scores for "Memphis Belle" and "Dangerous Liaisons.")
The plot contains a number of ambiguities, not only of the sexual uncertainty of Ned Kynaston but of the actor as person and the person as actor. As usual, in English period pieces the politics of the day are always, if not in the foreground, certainly in the background.
A film to purchase and see more than once to savor not only its overall impression but for those who love words to appreciate more fully the elegance of the playwright / script writer.
I initially did not give the film a five-star rating primarily because of Danes' performance, but Crudup and the rest of the cast made me rethink my decision. It's now a five-star film in my way of thinking.
Movie Review: Notable Performances From ALL!
Summary: 5 Stars
I agree w/ most of the other reviews except I feel the need to point out that I don't believe that Kynaston is necessarily a "gay character". I'm not sure he is gay at all. That's why his attraction to Maria is plausible. Maybe he is gay, maybe he's not. I don't think that it really matters. The fact is that Kynaston said it himself that he was taken off the streets, fed and educated and train to act by his "tutor...who liked all the pretty, pretty boys". I think Kynaston's sexuality has been twisted and pulled and remolded over and over like silly putty. Nothing is cut and dry in this film regarding sexual roles. In some ways it almost gives us a "missing link" gender that is no longer a part of our culture. In the film Kynaston has focused his entire self on being an actor who plays women's roles. This is not just what he does but rather "who" he is. After recuperating from a severe beating he is rejected by his lover, George Villiers, who claims that his attraction was not to Kynaston the man but rather the female roles he played, Villiers would imagine himself "inside" Desdemona or poor, poor Ophelia when he had sex w/ Kynaston. He tells Kynaston that he does not who he (Kynaston) is and does not think that Kynaston know either.
By Kynaston losing his place upon the stage he lost more than just his livelihood and social standing (that in and of itself could crush an a average person) but rather himself entirely. In the aforementioned sexual role-playing scene he inadvertently ruins the moment by inquiring "how does your Desdemona die at the end?" to Maria. Maria jumps up and quite eloquently states "your tutor has done you a great disservice Mr. Kynaston, he taught you how to speak like a women and move like a women but he did not teach you to feel like a woman and love like a woman...he has taken a you and trapped you in a women's form and left you to die". Quite simply with out the acting he is just a confused boy that has never grow to be a proper man "...for he was kept in a basement w/14 other boys, and not allowed to wear a dress for 3 years nor a woman's wig for 4 yrs, not until he could prove that he had removed every possible remnant of maleness from his very being". Crudup's Kynaston tore me to shreds and the comedic moments through out the film did nothing to detract from Kynaston's deconstruction after his emotional bubble is popped and he is forced discover some remnant of what he once was and what he could have been had it not been for the unusual circumstances of his childhood.