Stage Beauty

Stage Beauty (2004) Well, here is a non-horror, non-SiFi movie where no one is killed or even hurt and I loved it. I must be getting soft in my old age. Ok there is one beating to a pulp scene but I gave ‘em a pass on that one. This historical movie about an obscure event in 17th century England is a full blown costume drama with great English accents and the two leads are Americans! (Claire Danes and Billy Crudup). It takes place during the reign of Charles II not long after he defeated Oliver Cromwell and his round heads. The theater is back up and running in old blighty and the story centers on the plight of the leading female actor in all of England. It seems that women were not allowed to act on stage in those days and men were the top actors for all parts. Then Charles arbitrarily changed the rules and allowed women on the stage and forbid men to act as women. What a blow for our lead character.

Hardly seen by anyone when the movie came out, it approaches “Shakespeare in Love” in quality but deals with a bit of a naughty subject and bends a few genders in the process. Quality acting goes deep into minor rolls and the storyline works well. There are a number of excellent lines such as when Claire Danes auditions for a part usually played by Crudup and she tells him she can ‘explain everything’, he fires back, “What, are you a philosopher?” However, it actually is a story about discovering who you really are and the trials of finding the answer. Give this one a try if you want a break from watching werewolves fight zombies while and alien invasion is going on in Transylvania. The movie is rated R for: gender bending, tip of Danes, bum of blonde, multiple face crèmes, multiple horse poop, multiple fops, cross dressing actors, cross dressing royals, and for the appearance of Samuel Pepys in a movie, a rare event.