Oliver Parker seems to have a “thing” for the works of Oscar Wilde – having already made two films based on the legendary Irish wit’s plays: The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband. This time, Wilde’s first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is up for cinematic treatment.
A gothic horror-tinged morality story laced with Wilde’s rapier wit; the film adaptation is, like the doomed protagonist of the title, not the most faithful of creatures – even part of the title has been discarded. Now it is simply Dorian Gray.
Parker’s film is successful in allowing the once frowned upon homosexual undertones of Wilde’s novel to be more explicit – indeed in one scene Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin), the painter of the infamous portrait – is seduced into sexual acts by the magnetic Dorian. As the endless nights of passion and partying go on, Wilde’s great aphorism takes precedence: “I can resist everything except temptation.”
There are shades of Goethe’s Faust and even vampire mythology at work in Dorian Gray – the man sells his soul for eternal youth. Parker ramps up the blood and violence to good effect: one scene has Gray (Ben Barnes) positively bathed in blood; hacking away at a victim who has stumbled upon the truth. In a later montage Gray is seen shooting up and partaking in a spot of sadomasochism.
Dorian Gray’s The cast is uniformly excellent; and its great to see Colin Firth playing against type as the Mephistopheles-like Lord Henry Wotton – a man whose “philosophy of excess” much inspires the young Dorian to make his mysterious pact. Rebecca Hall, as the completely fabricated (for the movie) heroine Emily Wotton is hardly given any screen time before serving as Dorian’s potential savior. Ben Barnes proves he is more than a good-looking bastard – it takes a while for him to settle; as the young, naive Dorian he doesn’t quite hit it – as the morally decrepit, serial-shagger Dorian – he is much more self-assured.
By and large, the adaptation by Toby Finlay, allows for the more darker aspects of the source material to shine through. It jettisons fair portions of the novel’s material and some key characters: the tragic early lover of Gray’s – Sybil Vane (Rachel Hurd-Wood) is given little screen time. The film benefits from Oscar Wilde’s satirical and barbed dialogue, and Finlay does a good job at mimicking Wildean-type sound-bites.
However it is possibly the definitive film version. Dorian Gray is a wonderfully complex and tragic character – and his descent into a maelstrom of sex and bad manners – allows for plenty of laughs. He basically acts like a modern-day rock star or a film actor.
Dorian Gray’s Roger Pratt’s sumptuous photography ramps up the gothic atmosphere creating a dark, grey and smoky Victorian-era London that clashes with the opulence of the interiors; whether opium dens, ballrooms or libraries. Some ropey CG effects do stick out like a sore thumb yet that is a minor quibble. So too, the film’s undecided supernatural tone. The picture, given its ultimate “reveal” at the tense finale, seems to be alive somehow; as if Gray’s moral corruptness is spawning some ghoulish, external being. It is a hideous CG creation and does amplify Gray’s distress at a life spent chasing emotionally-empty, sensual, carnal pursuits.
Its ambiguous air as to whether Lord Wotton is some dark, sinister magician or whether Gray is responsible for his own doom is nicely played. Wotton’s decadent and hedonistic philosophy spurs the young man on but he eventually outshines all expectations.
As a black comedy, the film works more successfully than its attempts at tragic gothic-horror with a moralistic twist. Oscar Wilde’s text is ultimately too complex and erudite for the medium of cinema to cope. The pertinent question is: would you sell your soul for an eternity of debauchery and vice? The answer: God, yes.
Rating: ★★★½☆
Dorian Gray is released in the UK on 9th September 2009.