In the film world Keira Knightley may be a gem, but it turns out that on the stage she is not quite as impressive, at the opening of Le Misanthrope and her character turned out to be a little dull.
Knightley may have a gorgeous face, but for anyone stuck in the theatre her performance is about as charismatic and personable as a goldfish. For films, the fact that her face stays immobile is not always a drawback, but on the stage when the other thing that can hold the audience’s attention is movement, this is not a welcome feature.
Of course, perhaps matters would not be quite so bad if the character did not scream out for Knightley to project a lively personality. After all, her role is Jennifer who is a woman looking to be a movie star whom attracts attention by both the grisly and the refined for her magnetism and ravishing good looks.
Instead, you get a dull doll on stage that timidly seems to be asking for attention, not demanding it.
In short, Knightley is only in the play because she is famous, not because she is meant to be a thespian as her performance clearly shows. The only redeeming feature of the show is that the rest of the cast truly does shine due to the fact it includes Damian Lewis, Tim McMullan, Nicholas Le Prevost, and Dominic Rowan.
