| WILDE |
 1997
- USADirector: Griffin
Dunne - Reviewed by Kerri 
As this biopic of writer Oscar Wilde opened with the credits appearing
on screen with each name I was exclaiming to myself, "Why haven't I seen
this movie before?!?!" The cast seemed hand-picked from several of my
favorite movies: Stephen Fry (Longitude, I.Q.); Jennifer Ehle
(Pride & Prejudice); Jude Law (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and well,
The Talented Mr. Ripley); and of course, my dear Ioan Gruffudd
(Horatio Hornblower). With a cast like that, how could a movie go wrong?
Well... it could. This wasn't necessarily a bad movie but it was quite dull. If you like two hours of gay porn you might be more enthusiastic about it. Kudos to Stephen Fry for having to oh-so-subtly drool over every pretty boy in this film, and then make out with them. This movie is full of pretty boys, and it practically knocks you over with a sledgehammer to drive in the fact that Wilde had a penchant for them (of course, in my humble opinion, Ioan Gruffudd stepping into a room warrants some drooling). We are given a rather choppy, perfunctory glimpse into his marriage to Constance Lloyd (Ehle), the birth of two sons, and his success as a writer. But the movie doesn't waste any time in showing us some bare naked boy butt (Michael Sheen's being the first). Jude Law plays Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, Wilde's main toy. We get to see numerous love scenes between them, Bosie's butt on more than one occasion, and some terrific spoil-sport brat temper tantrums. He introduces us to the underworld of London, a place where men meet in darkened rooms and engage in the "love that dare not speak its name." Ehle's performance as Constance is woefully sparse; she floats in and out of scenes and makes trite comments about how her husband is never home, but we are not really sure if she is aware of what is going on or is just stupid. Law's performance of Bosie is superb; he pulls off the privileged rich brat very nicely. (Not to mention pretty-boy. That dude's got pancake and eyeliner down pat. No wonder they cast him as a robot in A.I.) But let's move on to the gem of this film: Ioan Gruffudd as John Gray, the inspiration for the novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray. Although he gets only a bit part, and they don't even list his name in the opening credits (tsk tsk), you can feel his pain when Wilde dumps him for Bosie. Poor soul. Let me comfort you. The end drags on and on. Like in The Doors, I was left not knowing anything more about Oscar Wilde than I did before, other than his forays into hedonism. Is it possible to make a biopic of an artist without focusing on their weaknesses? Alas, it is the very weaknesses that draws us to them I guess. This movie had a great cast, some wonderful acting, and a good overall production; however, someone should have taken the plot back to the drawing board. |
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