Stage Beauty (2004)
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Reviews Counted: 123
Fresh: 78 | Rotten: 45
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 39
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 14
No consensus yet.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 10,854
My Rating
Movie Info
The true story of two performers whose careers were changed forever by a shift in gender roles on the British stage comes to the screen in this adaptation of the play Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffrey Hatcher. In London, in the latter half of the 17th century, Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is a noted star of the legitimate theater with an unusual specialty -- at a time when it was considered unseemly for women to work as thespians, Kynaston specialized in female roles, and was described by
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Cast
-
Billy Crudup
Ned Kynaston -
Claire Danes
Maria Hughes -
Rupert Everett
King Charles II -
Tom Wilkinson
Thomas Betterton -
Ben Chaplin
George Villars Duke of ... -
Hugh Bonneville
Samuel Pepys -
Edward Fox
Sir Edward Hyde -
Zoe Tapper
Nell Gwynn -
Stephen Marcus
Thomas Cockerell -
Clare Higgins
Mistress Revels -
Mark Letheren
Male Emilia/Dickie -
David Westhead
Harry -
Tom Hollander
Sir Peter Lely -
Derek Hutchinson
Stage Manager -
Fenella Woolgar
Lady Meresvale -
Jack Kempton
Call Boy -
Alice Eve
Miss Frayne -
Nick Barber
Nick -
Robin Dunn
Butler -
Isabella Calthorpe
Lady Jane Bellamy -
Andy Merchant
1st Thug -
John Street
2nd Thug -
John Tannen
3rd Thug -
Hermione Gulliford
Mrs. Barry -
Madeleine Worrall
Female Emilia -
-
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All Critics (131) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (81) | Rotten (47) | DVD (13)
The attraction to Stage Beauty is that it is just as much a campy comedy as it is an elegant drama.
Has a lot to say and manages to say most of it in an unexpectedly entertaining way -- and also with no small amount of poignancy.
It's a Restoration romantic comedy that struggles with the romance and isn't nearly comic enough.
Has a weird, compelling energy, fueled by a deliciously dynamic cast, a cheerfully bawdy and odd story line and a refreshing, impossible romance.
Even if playwright Jeffrey Hatcher was a bit too tied up in his original play, there's no denying the wonderful wit at its center.
While Eyre's direction is somewhat squarely theatrical, his sense both of period and the theatrical milieu is powerful.
Danes, as usual, overplays her character's every emotion.
"Stage Beauty" has the grace and charm of a great play. It has its acts, its drama and its comedy.
A vapid confection.
A promisingly playful piece that turns out to be more interested in pleasing the general audience rather than its own heart.
The film as a whole is flawed, but Crudup delivers a mesmerizing performance, the latest in a long line of illuminating turns.
A cineaste's feast.
It's Crudup's performance that takes the film from being dull and stage-like to exhilarating and entertaining.
This is one of those roles that actors kill for, and Cruddup hits it out of the park.
...the kind of picture that comes with challenges but is not afraid to meet them - or indeed, overcome them - head on.
Handles provocative issues of sexuality and gender with intelligence and grace
Stage Beauty pretends to be a celebration of acting, but in fact it's saying you'll be happiest if you go through life playing the most conventional role you can find.
... questions of sexual identity eventually take a subordinate position to a more obvious story about the origins of method acting.
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