A Renaissance drama set during the last days of male actors playing women, the pieces of this period puzzle simply don't fit.
Billy Crudup is Ned Kynaston, an acclaimed actor of female roles whose career is ruined when the rule outlawing actresses is reversed. Claire Danes plays Maria, his devoted dresser destined to take his place as the toast of the London theater when she becomes the first woman to take to the boards in 18 years.
It should be enthralling, but too many elements don't jive.
Kynaston's falsetto and mannerisms wouldn't pass muster with drag queens. Crudup is much more convincing out of costume and falling apart as his character panics over his disintegrating career.
Maria is championed by a high-society patron, shown in an early scene to be a pervert. It's impossible to believe he's helping her out of kindness, yet the film never addresses what he might be expecting, or receiving, in exchange.
When she does break out as a star, it's under Kynaston's guidance. But it's incongruous that he could coach her to a stunning performance when he was incapable of the same.
As the characters' contradictions go, so goes the movie. At times, it also seems director Richard Eyre is doing everything he can to make the film absurd.