Film Review : Dorian Gray

Oscar Wildes' tale of the perpetually young, handsome and charismatic Dorian Gray is well know to many people, and has been subject to many interpretations over the years. In an era of remakes and reimaginings it's no real surprise that another attempt to tell this tale is now showing in our local movie theatres.

Gray is played by the disgustingly handsome Ben Barnes who came to prominence as Prince Caspian in the second of the Narnia films. He starts the film as the young, impressionable man who inherits his family's wealth and who is introduced into society by the devilish Lord Henry Wotton played excellently by Colin Firth who delights in talking a good game but who clearly prefers setting up his young protege to walk the talk. Ably supported by Ben Chaplin as Basil Hallward who paints the legendary picture which will carry the fate resulting from Gray's life of debauchery.

The film is beautifully shot, and Barnes plays the lead character well from the impressionable young man through to the older (but identical) 45 year old who realises just how empty his life is despite the apparent benefits of eternal youth. Barnes is excellent in the later part of the film and he does generate the sheer emptiness of the life that he has lived and an appreciation of the damage he has done.

The whole story pivots around the relationship between the returning Gray and Wotton's daughter (played by the excellent Rebecca Hall). The one weakness in the film, and I believe this is in part to ensure that it retained an appropriate rating, is that Gray's debauchery is largely depicted as someone having a damned, good time. Indeed, you might imagine that these are the type of things that someone like Jack Nicholson is still getting up to although he looks every inch of his seventy-plus years.

Admittedly, murdering your fiance because she wasn't to keen on you playing away from home might be considered extreme, but it's not really an indication of the debauchery you'd expect in return for committing your soul to the devil. The murder of Gray's friend might venture nearer to this territory but there's any number of films that have characters murdered by friend in the interest of self-preservation that don't involve any paintings in the attic.

Nevertheless, despite this the film remains an enjoyable one that is carried by the excellent look of the film and series of performances which maintained this viewers interest for its' duration.

And my attic is way too full with CD's and DVD's to have room for a painting. So that explains why I look the way I do!