Starring: Ben Barnes, Colin Firth
Directed by: Oliver Parker
Certificate: 15
Runtime: 112mins
UK release date: 18 January 2010:
In a nutshell: Dorian Gray is a young, handsome man who is introduced to the seediness of the London scene. Giving up his soul to protect the beauty and youth captured in his portrait, his portrait instead suffering the ravages of time, can he save himself for love?
Here we all are, post millennium, obsessed with celebrities,
youth and beauty. So what's new? Oscar Wilde
warned us about all this more than a century ago. His once
controversial novel, A Picture of Dorian Gray, has now come to the
screen as just: Dorian Gray, which is the sort of celebrity name
treatment Dorian would get if he was around today.
So if you dozed off at school here's the gist: A renowned artist
captures the power of Dorian's innocence, youth, and beauty in a
portrait. Today we'd say he looked 'well fit'.
Especially as played by the often shirtless Ben Barnes, who's a
long way from Narnia but easily has the hunk appeal the role
requires. Dorian's vanity takes over when he makes an oath to
give his immortal soul if he could always stay as young he is in
the Portrait. From that moment his portrait does Dorian's
ageing for him, leaving the man himself to stay looking like, well,
Prince Caspian forever more.
Now that Dorian's got a free pass to enjoy drugs, sex (straight
and gay), orgies, aristocratic virgins and their mothers, without
having to worry about little things like guilt or remorse he does
just that. For every sin committed the more his portrait carries
the can, and the more the film gets into its gothic horror
groove. Trouble is it takes about 45 minutes to get
into that groove.
Of course Dorian doesn't become a monster all of the sudden.
He gets slowly corrupted, but it feels like the film, which is
desperate to become a horror, is just plodding through that
process. Played by Colin Firth, Sir Henry Wotton is the
charismatic mentor who leads Dorian astray, but why is Wotton so
dead set on corrupting the lad? In the book he's a
renowned cynic playing a game that gets out of control, but in the
film the sinister camera angles and prolonged glares from Firth
suggest he's just plain evil. Which he's not, or he wouldn't
come to regret his actions as he does.
Watching Dorian Gray is like a drag up the very long ramp of a
rollercoaster, but once you're over the top it just doesn't let
up. Go in expecting modern day Hammer House of Horror and you
won't turn a hair at the way it descends into depravity, gore and
murder. You won't be phased as the portrait gurgles and roars
like a smog monster beneath a dust sheet. What might surprise
you is that Ben Barnes is showing that he's much more than just a
pretty face. For his part at least, one of Victorian
literatures most infamous characters is tackled with a bit of depth
and complexity.
Available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray from January 18th 2010.
DVD RRP £17.99
Blu-ray RRP £24.99
