Stage Beauty

Even though director Richard Eyre’s gender bender runs the gamut of sexual politics, it will leave viewers apathetic and bored. Billy Crudup stars as the sexually confused leading lady of the theater in the 1660s when women were forbidden to take center stage. As a result, he has forgotten what it’s like to be a man, and when King Charles II (Rupert Everett) reverses the sexist royal ban, Crudup’s self-esteem takes a deeper and uninteresting plunge into despair. Cue Claire Daines’ overacting as the Gloria Steinem of the theater to make a man out of Mr. Femininity, while she milks the newly lifted ban for everything it's worth. Shakespeare in Love is the real stage beauty, while this convoluted and clichéd mess is the beast.