Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by jamesgarvin (A) on August 01, 2005 at 09:29:59

In Reply to: "Stage Beauty" Why,... why did we have to suffer through "Shakespeare in Love" posted by Victor Khomenko on July 29, 2005 at 20:15:59:

Not having yet seen this one, I cannot comment. But Ebert did have a small comparison between the two that perhaps sounds appropriate:

"Like "Shakespeare in Love," which is set half a century earlier and also centers on men playing women (and on a woman playing a man, and a woman playing a man playing a woman), "Stage Beauty" explores the boundaries between reality and performance. The difference is, the Gwyneth Paltrow character in "Shakespeare" knows she is a woman in real life, while Ned Kynaston (based on a real actor), knows he is a woman on the stage but is not so sure about life."

"The movie lacks the effortless charm of "Shakespeare in Love," and its canvas is somewhat less alive with background characters and details. But it has a poignancy that "Shakespeare" lacks, because it is about a real dilemma and two people who are trying to solve it; must Ned and Maria betray their real natures in order to find love, or accept them?"