Stage Beauty

It must be the clergy's night off in Cambridge. Here I am having a nice evening out with a friend of mine, going to see a movie we've both wanted to see. I like to try and forget all about ministry, church, clergy and all that when I go out. I like to forget I'm a Vicar and just be a girl. And who should we meet in the ticket queue but another Vicar. So we stop and have a nice chat with him, head for our seats, and who should sit down right beside me but another Vicar....

Well, my own little moment of identity juggling was a good way to start watching this movie, which is all about someone else's identity crisis. Stage Beauty is worthy of its writing team, full of sharp and funny lines, but its rollicking "Shakespeare in Love" style rolls back every now and then to reveal some surprisingly deep and affecting ideas. The plot revolves around the order of the King (Charles) to change the law and allow women to act on the stage. The result is that the dresser of London's most beautiful drag actor becomes an overnight star, while the actor finds himself not only unemployed but with a serious identity crisis - if he can't play women, who is he?

There are a couple of scenes that had us shrinking in our seats a bit - one scene, for instance, when a disgusting, horrid old bully organises a serious beating-up for our hero. This is offset by plenty of lighthearted and humorous romps. It is intriguing, and a little odd, to see 21st century obsessions and social constructions being played out in 17th century clothes and backdrops. Rupert Everett as King (or read Prince??) Charles is an absolute joy. Hugh Bonneville in yet another nice little role as Pepys, hiding his lasciviousness under a slimy veneer of English niceness.

The ending is a little odd. The former dresser stars as Desdemona, and former drag actor as Othello, and after stunning their audience with a quite brilliant death scene, the story suddenly resolves back into a confusion of gender identity again... who is Ned now? is he a man now? or a man playing a woman playing a man? And suddenly the need for a happy ending brings us to a fudge at the final moment... (Made me think of Andie McDowell so woefully fudging the final line of 4 Weddings...) But no matter, the unsatisfactory ending doesn't wreck the whole movie.

Go see. (Unless you're offended by sex and swearing, in which case have a nice cup of tea instead, and don't go anywhere near it.)