Wonderful character development!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Stage Beauty grips you from the very beginning as you are beguiled and horrified by the painted faces of the men that take the stage as women. They story follows Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) as England's best "Female" actor and his dresser Maria Hughes (Claire Danes) as they traipse through life on stage and behind the scenes. Kynaston hides behind his female counterparts long after the curtain has dropped and Hughes harbors two secret desires--one being her love of acting and the other being her love of Kynaston.As Hughes's career skyrockets while Kynaston's descends, she finds that perhaps she isn't as brilliant an actress as she thought while he finds that he knows absolutely nothing of how to be a man. The movie takes you through these realizations at lightning speed, not bothering to hold your hand and spell it out. Danes's character, still harboring affection for Crudup's seeks him out, and the two embark on a journey to teach the other what they know: how to electrify the stage and how to be yourself in a world that will pigeonholed you to the part they think you should play. Danes and Crudup shine in this drama. A truly beautiful and original film. 7.2/10

I saw this years ago and thought it was really good, but have recently seen it again and it's interesting to watch it again in a new cinema climate. It is a film with heart, intelligence and genuinely brilliant storytelling. I think I took that for granted as to what a film should be when I saw it ten years ago, but these days when every film is a remake, a sequel, a prequel it is an honor to watch something that reminded me of what film is suppose to be like.Yes it has its flaws, what film doesn't, but it more than makes up for that in grounded, clear, insightful storytelling. The acting is great and the actors are allowed to use their talent to the best of their abilities with a really good, well thought out script. It has made me wonder what other films from that period I over-looked and now should be held up as a beacon of great filmmaking.

Though colorful in a superficial sort of way, this was otherwise a silly movie, which took a subject that might have been used intelligently and trivialized it with, among other things, horrible and distracting music that bore little or no relation to the action, a contrived love-story between the two characters (Danes was unconvincing in all respects, and Crudup was unconvincing as a female-role actor, and, as one reviewer pointed out, he was more "feminine" when he wasn't trying to play a woman), and a drawn-out exposition of thin material. It is possible that it was not intended to be historically accurate, and, if so, it succeeded in that. Trite and predictable, right down to its gag-worthy ending.

I bought this movie because of Billy Crudup. I always enjoy his performances. But, once the movie started, I was mesmerized. The entire mood and theme of the movie; its looks, its pacing and its story, take us to a time that most of us knew little about.Theatre people, and theatre students knew about this and tittered over love scenes between two men. But, nobody thought about the moment when all that was over and women took to the stage. I venture to say most of us didn't know it wasn't more than socially incorrect for women to be in theatre at one time, but illegal.The story is beautifully written and transcends the issue of women versus men on stage and instead focuses on the acting ability of two such people. King Charles II, in the movie, states that the leading lady (Clare Danes) is the first and Crudup is the last (male to play a female, legally...at least in HIS time.) If you want a lovely view of post-Reformation England, theatre in general, you can see it all here. All this movie leaves out is the horrid smells theatre treated you to. It is that real.