After a chance encounter, theater-loving teen Richard Samuels (Zac Efron) gets the opportunity of a lifetime when famed director Orson Welles (Christian McKay) gives him a small role in his 1937 production of “Julius Caesar.” Unexpectedly thrust into the heady world of the stage, Richard finds himself surrounded by ambition, clashing egos and sheer brilliance.
Widower Dr. Charles Nichols (Walter Matthau) is trying to get back into the dating game, but he’s having a hard time adjusting to life as a single man. Every attempt at meeting women seems to end in disaster. It isn’t until he meets Ann (Glenda Jackson) as a patient at the hospital that he begins to think he might be able to find love once again. But both Charles and Ann have issues with commitment, and neither want to be the first to take the plunge into another long-term relationship.
Composer Frédéric Chopin (Hugh Grant) is living in France, and his health is slowly deteriorating. Author Baroness Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin (Judy Davis), who writes under the name George Sand, admires Chopin from afar and makes plans to meet the composer. After being advised to stay away from Chopin, Sand shows up at a party he is attending and observes his fragile health. While Chopin tries to resist Sand, he is intrigued by a love letter written by an unknown admirer.
Having scorned every member of the New York upper class, the seductive Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt) travels to Amalfi, Italy, hoping to win over a married aristocrat, Robert Windermere (Mark Umbers). When news of their flirting becomes a scandal, Windermere’s innocent wife, Meg (Scarlett Johansson), plots an elaborate revenge, despite her own attraction to the young Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore). At Meg’s 20th birthday party, all illicit desires come to the surface.
