A film set in a 1660s theatre where women are banned from performing, but one feisty girl (Clare Danes) goes to great lengths to act? Hmmm, all sounds a bit Shakespeare in Love, doesn't it? Truth be told, Richard Eyre's Stage Beauty does owe a passing nod of gratitude to that Oscar winner, but the twist comes with the object of our heroine's affections - Ned Kynaston (Crudup), an actor who specialises in playing women and is lauded for it. However when his dresser Maria (Danes) expresses her own theatrical ambitions, it seems that she could inadvertently end Kynaston's.
Initially a rowdy and boisterous stage-based comedy, Stage Beauty staggers when it attempts to etch out a romance between the two lead characters. The two actors couldn't be more at odds, either. While Crudup is given something to work with in the shape of Kynaston, Danes is not quite so fortunate, her character is underwritten and far too lightweight to be anything more than a passing curiosity. There are some nice moments - most supplied by a campy Rupert Everett who is having a whale of a time - but Stage Beauty's reluctance to commit to a definite shape leaves you reflecting on might have been more than what is.
