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Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.
All Critics (127) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (81) | Rotten (46) | DVD (8)
It's a marvelous premise, and Crudup's serpentine performance has a venomous grace. But Jeffrey Hatcher's screenplay too often sacrifices psychological insight for bogus theatricality.
The attraction to Stage Beauty is that it is just as much a campy comedy as it is an elegant drama.
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.
Stage Beauty... has a lot going for it. Richard Eyre's spritely direction helps hide the holes in the plot, creating a vivid, raucous, underworld London of transvestites, whores and pickpockets, some played by a terrific supporting cast.
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.
It's Crudup's performance that takes the film from being dull and stage-like to exhilarating and entertaining.
Drag actor Ned Kynaston's career is ruined when Charles II reopens the theaters and allows women to appear on stage. The historical inaccuracies of this film are distracting, but the performances by Billy Crudup and Claire Danes make the film worth watching. Crudup captures how Ned Kynaston's gender confusion extends both on stage and in his personal life, and his scenes with Danes are compelling. What holds this film back, more than its inability to capture the spirit of its time the way The Libertine did, is the film's inability to fully explore how sexually and gender interact with societal constraints. The film could be saying that gender and sexuality are socially constructed, but this theme doesn't reach fruition. Overall, I dislike this film mostly because of its wasted potential.
Super Reviewer
The ultimate gender confusion/sexual identity movie. I found myself liking this a great deal more than the beloved Shakespeare in Love (which I don't understand), it deals with theatre history in a way that isn't corny. Billy Crudup's performance is almost scary, his female withdrawals were extremely believable. I would say that the only bad parts of the movie are the exaggeration of some characters and the fact that there are a ridiculous amount of pointless subplots going on.
One of my favorite Billy Crudup movies (the other-- Almost Famous). He does a fabulous performance where he is sexy, beautiful, sad and the audience truly connects with him on his venture to finding himself. Claire Danes is a perfect counterpart in her role. I don't know whom to recommend this film to, because I think a it is either a love or hate film...I loved it!
I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I really wasn't sure what to expect going in but I enjoyed it. It was a little hard to get into but it picked up and sucked me in after a while.
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