Jeffrey Hatcher Movies

History's most renowned ladies' man finally meets his match in this historical romance laced with comedy and adventure. In Venice in 1753, Giacomo Casanova (Heath Ledger) is a notorious playboy whose way with women goes too far when he's caught leaving the bedroom of a novice nun, and one of the leading prosecutors of the Inquisition, Pucci (Jeremy Irons), puts him on trial. The Doge (Tim McInnerny), Venice's political point man, is a friend of Casanova's and pulls strings to get him off the hook and allow him to stay in the city, but under one condition -- he must take a wife and remain faithful to her. Casanova sets his sights on Victoria (Natalie Dormer), a lovely young maiden who is obviously taken with the handsome ladykiller, but he's not the only one who wants her hand. Giovanni Bruni (Charlie Cox) is a young man who is very much in love with Victoria, and in order to move him out of the picture, Casanova challenges him to a duel. However, when Casanova is bested in swords in the challenge, he discovers he's actually been parrying with Giovanni's sister, Francesca (Sienna Miller). As Casanova gets to know Francesca, he discovers she's a gifted writer and a bright and independent woman as well as a good hand with a sword, and he comes to the realization that she's the woman he wants to take to the altar. However, Francesca has already been promised to the vain and chubby Papprizzio (Oliver Platt), a man she's never met, and she doesn't seem at all interested in the notorious Casanova. Casanova also stars Lena Olin, and Omid Djalili. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The true story of two performers whose careers were changed forever by a shift in gender roles on the British stage comes to the screen in this adaptation of the play Compleat Female Stage Beauty by Jeffrey Hatcher. In London, in the latter half of the 17th century, Ned Kynaston (Billy Crudup) is a noted star of the legitimate theater with an unusual specialty -- at a time when it was considered unseemly for women to work as thespians, Kynaston specialized in female roles, and was described by one writer as the most beautiful woman on the London stage. With the help of his faithful dresser, Maria Hughes (Claire Danes), Kynaston can turn himself into a striking actress in front of the footlights, and is starring opposite Thomas Betterton (Tom Wilkinson) in a production of Shakespeare's Othello when, while still in costume after a performance, he is propositioned by theatrical impresario Sir Charles Sedley (Richard Griffiths). The sexually open-minded Sedley isn't discouraged to learn Kynaston is a man, but he is bitterly angered by the actor's flip rejection of his advances. Sedley takes revenge against Kynaston by hiring a gang of criminals to beat him up. With Betterton's production of Othello closed while the leading "lady" recuperates, Hughes sees an opportunity and stages an underground version of the play, casting herself as Desdemona. While she lacks Kynaston's dramatic skills, the daring of her appearance on-stage creates a sensation, and King Charles II (Rupert Everett), a noted theater buff, is so taken with Hughes that he declares women should play women from now on. But as Hughes' star rises, Kynaston's quickly falls, and he becomes a bitter, forgotten man. When the novelty of Hughes' gender wears off and her failings as an thespian become obvious, she turns to her former friend Kynaston, hoping he can teach her to be as good an actress as he was. Stage Beauty's supporting cast includes Ben Chaplin, Edward Fox, and Hugh Bonneville. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi