There have been several past attempts in transferring the most famous novel by Oscar Wilde on the big screen. This movie, however, looks more to be a re-interpretation rather than a faithful adaptation of the perturbing novel.
In fact, Oliver Parker’s work has a particular focus on facts and facets of the main character that Oscar Wilde had only left to the reader’s imagination, even by pushing the shooting script further and introducing non existing characters in the original novel.
Without setting on the side the pivotal theme of The Picture of Dorian Gray, that is the cult of eternal beauty and the primacy of art on life (it is one’s life that is to be an artistic creation and not art that is to reproduce life), the film is especially centred on the process of depravation following Dorian’s pact with the devil for eternal beauty and youth in exchange of his own soul.
A Classic Cinema Picture
The movie sets out the novel’s original plot of Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes), a young man of charming beauty arriving in the London of late XIX century, where the character soon becomes enticed by dandy Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth) into the life of hedonistic seek of pleasure. The painting of him made by artist Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin) will embody the dissolution of his soul behind the never fading beauty of his appearance.
The peculiar contribution of the film though is the insights into the dark side of the story with explicit scenes of Dorian’s devotion to lust and pleasure. Also, the picture of Dorian itself is shown in the film as a living horripilant creature locked away to rot and uttering back-shivering sounds. It is certainly this type of elements powered by the use of special effects that are adding a horror twist to the story’s already decadent flavour.
The final part and ending of the film take a decisive distance from that of the novel which might seem disappointing for Oscar Wilde’s lovers. It is probably best to see the movie as being an independent piece of work, which would also explain the looks of Dorian Gray being quite different from the blonde young man with blue eyes narrated in the novel. This movie takes inspiration from the novel and does present, nonetheless, the whole spirit of Wilde leaving the right spaces for his famous aphorisms and conception of life, art and beauty.
