DVD Review: Dorian Gray

Dorian Gray. 107 minutes. MA15+. Directed by Oliver Parker. Written by Toby Finlay. Based on the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde’s grand, gothic fairytale about vanity, hedonism, narcissism and the combined destructive powers of youth and beauty – has long been considered an important and influential literary achievement. It was Wilde’s only published novel and, like his most famous play – The Importance of Being Earnest – is considered an indisputable classic. It was also memorably (and some might say rather perfectly) adapted for the screen in 1945 by writer/director Albert Lewin, and our generation of filmmakers appeared to have had the good sense to leave it alone.

Until now.

Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes) has everything going for him: he’s young, attractive, rich and poised to take on the world. When an artist, Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin), paints a portrait of the young man that will take pride of place on a wall in his recently inherited mansion, Dorian becomes increasingly obsessed with his own beauty and the luxury of riches and choices such good fortune bestows upon him. Under the tutelage of a sinister Lord Henry Wooton (Colin Firth), Dorian embarks on a journey of earthly (and unearthly) delights that will risk delivering him to the very depths of despair.

With all the subtly of a landmine, Parker’s contemporary retelling of Wilde’s fantastically complex, inventive and – most importantly, timeless – morality tale entirely misses the point: which is what you see is often not what you get. Here, instead, is an adaptation so startlingly lacking in imagination and intellect that you ‘see’ and ‘get’ everything.

Roger Pratt’s (Troy, Harry Potter, Twelve Monkeys) cinematography, John Beard’s (The Last Temptation of Christ) production design and Ruth Myers’ (The Golden Compass) costuming are all magnificent – but while the way a film looks can often account for the way it feels, all the mysterious and menacing subtly, sophistication and suggestion that powers the novel (and its previous cinematic incarnation) have been recklessly abandoned by both Parker and first time screenwriter Finlay.

Barnes (pictured, who played the title role in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) tackles the difficult lead role with great charm and good grace – even if his performance suffers from the same desperately frantic quality in which the entire film eventually drowns. The supporting cast tackle all the reductively self-indulgent nonsense with an ever-increasing air of desperation, while an almost impossibly understated Firth spends much of the film reciting the dialogue as though he’s trying to remember what he needs to get from the supermarket.

As Lord Wooton says to our young antihero: The only two things worth having are youth and beauty. Add another: Respect.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Midwest Times.