Dorian Gray

If you’ve yet to read Oscar Wilde’s novel here’s a quick surmise. Dorian Gray is an impressionable young man who, on meeting Lord Henry Wotton, undertakes a more and more hedonistic lifestyle, but at the expense of selling his soul so that he won’t physically age. However, the aging process is gradually shown on a picture of Gray painted by his friend Basil. Oliver Parker’s film Dorian Gray is fairly faithful to the source material, until it goes off on its own tangent towards the end. In the film Gray is played by Ben Barnes and Wotton by Colin Firth. Barnes, though he never totally convinces, has a decent crack at showing Gray’s slow descent into madness. Firth rarely gives a bad performance and doesn’t here either, though he does seem uncomfortable at times spouting some of Wilde’s pretentious dialogue. Where the film is let down is by Parker not moving the storyline along quickly enough and a hugely obtrusive score. I can only assume the “picture” of the title has been dropped as the actual picture in the film is hidden away for long periods and only raises its head with some ugly CGI later on. This is an error as the picture is meant to shown how Gray is aging and how his soul is decaying. Without this, watching Barnes cavorting around grows dull very quickly indeed. As for the score, it seriously needs to be toned down. Even simple actions like opening a door are met with a wailing and crashing crescendo of portentous intent. This is also the same MO used for a few admittedly decent jumps, but its overuse grates and is distracting. Overall this is neither hit nor miss, but a few nude scenes and a fair helping of gore make this a more adult film then you might expect.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
A little bit messy and drawn out, but there are a few neat little scares and the base material is still an intriguing story. Rating: 5/10.