Posted by Kate at March 24th, 2006

I just watched this unbelievable movie today. I am so thankful when I stumble on a movie that stands out, and makes me think, and is just well acted, not overly done, just honest and brilliant. It’s called "Stage Beauty" with Billy Crudup and Claire Daines and it absolutely blew me away. For my friend Danny, it was Trocious!! The opposite of atrocious. It’s about the time in England when women are granted the right to act on stage and how that affects, specifically, Billy Crudup’s character who is an actor that plays female roles. There is this scene where he is coaching Claire Danes on the death scene in Othello and I was absolutely riveted and then they showed the actual performance and it moved me to tears. I can’t remember the last time I watched a Shakespeare play and was moved to tears. It’s a difficult thing to do, having seen and read the plays so many times, but they did it, they made me cry, and they surprised me, and horrified me and made me feel as if I was seeing something I had never seen before. I could tell in the moments before this particular scene that this was what the writer of the script was aiming for but to actually pull it off. Claire Danes and Billy Crudup deserve awards for what they did and whoever directed this movie, I just want to kiss you for grabbing my interest and transforming me while I watched. It was beauitful. Please go check it out.