'Stage Beauty'

Stage Beauty (dir: Richard Eyre, 2004, UK/Ger/USA)

So, here we go - the first movie posting on the blog. Hoorah and, more to the point, whoopee! If only I knew how to make the page look better and more fun to use. I suppose it will all come in time.

'Stage Beauty' was a movie barely seen by anybody on release and it's difficult to work out why. I assume the answer is something as boring as slovenly marketing or a limited release but whatever the reason it's a shame and a half. This is a wonderfully-acted period piece that deserves a wider audience than it has received in the four years since it first graced our screens (or 'screen', most probably).

And so, a vague set-up: it's the swinging 1660's and Ned Kynaston (a particularly lithe Billy Crudup) is one of the shining lights of the London stage. It is illegal for women to take to the boards and thus all female roles are played by men, Ned among them. His assistant Maria (Claire Danes) gazes on from the wings with unrequited adoration for Ned and a growing passion for acting itself, so much so that she starts to sneak away at the end of his shows to play Desdemona in 'Othello' at a local tavern. Ooooh slapped wrist. Anyway through various plot machinations both Ned and Maria are invited to 'The Palace', homestead of King Charles II, and after much playful dinner-time banter the king decides that enough is enough and that women should be able to play women on the stages of England.

Crudup's performance as a riches-to-rags Kynaston (a real cross-gender performer of 17th Century London) is magnificently layered - Ned's acerbic wit and confident swagger in the first half of the film is very swiftly replaced by dejected bitterness as the film unfolds. The grudging realisation of his being surplus to requirements is perfectly played here and it is a bit of a shame that the film itself does not match up to the central performance. Danes is solid and there is definite chemistry between the two leads but the movie is slightly baggy in the middle, lacking clarity on what exactly it wants to be. The direction is not as sharp as, say, 'Shakespeare In Love' - a film that 'Beauty' seemingly aspires to - and it is not quite clear whether the film-makers wanted to produce a comedy, a drama, a period romance or a serious commentary on what it was like for these actors once they were no longer needed. It does all of these things but none of them completely successfully.

Supporting performances by stalwarts of the British stage and screen such as Richard Griffiths, the fantastic Tom Wilkinson and a rather foppish Rupert Everett as Charles II are good as you would expect despite a sometimes schizophrenic screenplay which offsets clunky exposition with biting one-liners with frightening regularity.

The acting though is strong enough to shrug off the bugbears of script and direction and pull the film through to a rousing finale. The whole exercise does make one wonder why Crudup and Danes make so few movies when they are so much more talented than the average Hollywood actor - the hope is that it is through their own choice and not through lack of offers. That would be just criminal. Great acting in a film that should have been better.

3 Stars ***