BEFORE: Time for one more film before I break for Comic-Con. I should be packing my bags, but posting, then packing. Tonight it's another film set behind the scenes of Shakespearean plays. Lucky for me, Vanessa Redgrave from "Anonymous" was also in a film called "Wilde" with Tom Wilkinson, one of tonight's players.
THE PLOT: A female theatre dresser creates a stir and sparks a revolution in seventeenth century London theatre by playing Desedmona in Othello. But what will become of the male actor she once worked for and eventually replaced?
AFTER: It seems hard to believe now, but there was a time when women were not allowed on stage. I'm trying to discern the exact reason(s) for this, and the general consensus seems to be a combination of the Puritan influence, plus the arrogance of men who assumed that women were incapable. Throw in a few dashes of "Well, we've always done it this way" and that's how the glass ceiling gets formed. It's a bit funny, if the religious figures of the time didn't want women to be performing lewd acts on stage with men, but if two men were making out on stage, apparently that was OK. More on that later.
So at a time when no women were allowed to act, men had to have special training to act like women. But when the restriction was lifted and women were granted permission, and the word "actress" was apparently coined, the first women on stage started acting like the men they'd seen playing women. In this film, a man who only knows how to act like a woman has to then learn to act like a man, but first he has to teach a woman (who acts like a man acting like a woman) how to act like a woman. Geez, you'd think that would come naturally.
Why didn't the men just act like men? Apparently, there's no art in that. That's not acting, that's just being themselves. But then we come to the off-stage romance between the man (again, who's used to acting like a woman, if you know what I mean...) and the woman. This is the real gender confusion, between the sheets. You know what, people should just get nametags. They can say "dominant" and "submissive" or "pitcher" and "catcher", whatever helps clear things up.
The relevance of this film comes into focus when you think about our paparazzi-based economy, and the fascination that the TV shows and magazines have whenever a scandal hits - at least two recent ones come to mind (no names, please) but just as frequently in the last decade whenever they say that a star "admits" that he or she is gay. Right there, what's with the word "admit"? It implies wrongdoing, and unless there's something non-consensual or harmful going on, I thought we were past all this.
Why is anyone still surprised when a star's off-screen proclivities don't match his or her on-screen image? They're ACTORS. They pretend for a living - they are who we want them to be for an hour or two a day, and then they get to be who THEY want to be. How can you enjoy the benefits of your own private life, and then be shocked by what's going on in someone else's?
Besides, people change over time, and therefore who people are attracted to also changes over time. Sexuality is just one part of the equation, and sexual preference can change too - I had a front-row seat for that movie, once upon a time. But I walked out of it once I felt the plot wasn't going anywhere. You move on, you reinvent yourself.
Some might take issue with the turn the lead character takes here - you don't have to be gay to be a drag queen, but I bet it couldn't hurt. The male actor here does seem to qualify, though - but it seems like the love of a good woman straightens him out (so to speak), and to some it might appear that his homosexuality was therefore a problem that needed correcting. Again, if you're going to champion sexual freedom, then it has to go both ways (so to speak), and if straight people can be allowed to identify as gay, then you've got to allow for the reverse. Some people are just pan-sexual.
Speaking of godless heathens, with that I'm headed to the West Coast for the biggest promotional event of the year, 5 days in San Diego and then a side-trip to San Francisco. Back in one week.
Also starring Claire Danes (last seen in "The Mod Squad"), Billy Crudup, Rupert Everett (last seen in "Hysteria"), Ben Chaplin, Richard Griffiths (last seen in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1", there it is again!).
RATING: 6 out of 10 powdered wigs
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