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Stage Beauty (2004)
This British film boasts a wealth of acting talent, including two Americans doing some pretty impressive English accents in the main roles. Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is one of the many men on the English stage playing exclusively female roles. But after Charles II (Rupert Everett) announces that female roles are now to be played by women, Kynaston finds himself in competition with his former dresser (Claire Danes), and thrown into confusion regarding his own identity.
Danes manages to be both resolute and naive as an aspiring actress who still admires her former employer, and Crudup exudes femininity in every inflection and flick of his wrist. There are also many laughs to be had, not least from Tom Wilkinson as Mr. Betterton, the theatre manager, and Everett as an exuberant monarch. The penultimate scene is a fascinating study in acting, in more ways than one. This is a film that deserves a wider audience than it currently has.
Matchstick Men (2003)
One of Ridley Scott's relatively low-key films, Nicolas Cage is at his best as Roy, an obsessive compulsive con man whose lifestyle is disrupted when the daughter he never knew about turns up, just as he is preparing for one of his biggest cons.
Alison Lohman channels her inner teen as Roy's daughter Angela and very nearly runs away with the film. But there is strong support from Sam Rockwell as Roy's ultra laidback colleague. Cage manages to nail each tick and neurosis while at the same time retaining a smooth businesslike approach to each trick he pulls. And if you see the twist coming, then maybe you should consider a career as a con artist yourself.
Big Fish (2003)
Big Fish is one of Tim Burton's few films without Johnny Depp, but we are compensated by the presence of such diverse talent as Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Alison Lohman, Billy Crudup and Marion Cotillard. Crudup's character, Will Bloom, is trying to distinguish the real man his father is, from the mythical tales that his father has told him about his own life.
As he lies in his sick bed, an old Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) recounts fantastical tales about his life as a young man, played by McGregor. This being a Tim Burton film, we enter into the realms of the strange and the bizarre; along the way we encounter a lonely and misunderstood giant, Japanese conjoined twins, and a perfect little town hidden in the depths of a creepy forest. Even if we don't learn that much about Edward Bloom's real life, that ceases to be the point as we sit back and enjoy the journey, and we are encouraged to create a little fantasy in our own lives.
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