Review

Review Date: 24-October-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Stage Beauty (2004)

Watching "Stage Beauty" is a frustrating experience. It has historical allure, an attractive and able cast, and enough substance to keep one thinking long after the credits roll, and yet it feels half-baked, like an elaborate reading of a play in draft form. If good intentions carried the day, it would get my heartfelt applause. But because consistency and artistry count for something (a lot, actually), I can only acknowledge that it had a potential that wasn't fully realized.

The movie (which is in fact derived from a play) takes place in 1660s London during the reign of King Charles II. Up to that time, female roles in the theater were occupied by male actors specially trained in the fine art of being women, i.e., moving gracefully, pining piteously, taking tragedy lying down in a swoon of lace and powder. The most noted of these was Edward Kynaston (Billy Crudup), whose Desdemona death scene in "Othello" was considered one of the stage's finest. But when the king (Rupert Everett) agrees to lift the ban on female performers, Kynaston is left without the job and social position that have defined his life. The movie alters the facts to credit this change in public law to Kynaston's dresser, a young woman named Maria (Claire Danes) whose idolization of her employer has given her both the acting bug and a crush fraught with emotional and sexual confusion.

Crudup's looks and extensive stage experience make him the perfect choice for Kynaston, and he capably portrays the anguish of someone who has been bred for a single purpose and watches that purpose pass into history. (He reminded me of "The Last Emperor" in this respect.) Kynaston's loss is doubly painful because his elevated feminine position extends beyond the theater; he is welcomed into the bosom of high society, including the bed of the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Chaplin), specifically because he's a curiosity, a lady with intriguing anatomical parts. As soon as his occupation goes, his place in the world goes, and the only person who cares for him after that is Maria. Although she is less well drawn (her status and personal life are vague), Crudup and Danes enjoy a healthy chemistry as rivals/friends/potential lovers, particularly after Maria discovers that her own popularity depends as much on sensationalism as his did.

But the meaty premise and appealing cast cannot hide the fact that the story doesn't hold together, or maybe doesn't translate well to the big screen. The editing is choppy, resulting in a series of improbable situations and segues (the characters seem to move effortlessly between the theater, the palace, the country, always finding exactly whom they need to find to deliver some weighty announcement or share some important moment), and the inclusion of noted 17th-century figures Samuel Pepys (Hugh Bonneville) and royal mistress Nell Gwyn (Zoë Tapper) feels decidedly forced. Also, while I admit to glaring ignorance of the era, I can't shake the suspicion that the script contains too much of the modern. Again, Maria's independent lifestyle comes to mind, as does the dramatic finale in which she and Kynaston basically reinvent acting. This ties up the strings in a bow and fits the movie's theme of cutting through externalities to get at the truth, but it seems like a fairly recent cultural ideal being grafted where it doesn't belong. In short, "Stage Beauty" possesses too little of the latter and too much of the former; it makes a decent show without really satisfying.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.