The Dismal Framing of Dorian Gray
A generous portion of my third year at university was spent attempting to unravel Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, whose pages chart the intriguing regression of an initially innocent and charming newcomer to London’s high society.
Taken under the wing of the marvellous yet manipulative Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian Gray's virtues are soon usurped by cruelty and debauchery. Despite his moral decline, however, his physical appearance remains strikingly perfect, whilst his portrait done by artist friend Basil Hallward becomes progressively more deformed and grotesque. The novel therefore ingeniously reverses the Victorian motif that one learns their ethics and social decorum through art: instead of drawing his experiences from the picture, Dorian’s experiences are drawn on the picture. Unfortunately, although unsurprisingly, Wilde’s original achievement is neither translated nor updated in the new film showing now.
The entire plot is suffocated into the first hour of the screenplay. Many details and epigrams which season Wilde’s novel so well are thus neglected, including the wonderfully honest quotes “When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy", and “Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich". In their place is an entirely fabricated second hour which is not only unnecessary, but in fact detrimental. Dorian’s seditiousness becomes explicitly (though somewhat humorously) graphic, as does his ever decaying painting which ends up resembling more of an orc from Lord of the Rings than an 'off-the-rails' youth. And, just for bad measure, a new love interest is inserted in the form of actress Rebecca Hall, who is much too practical for the comedy.
The other characters are similarly ill casted. Admittedly, Ben Barnes as Dorian does have a convincing gothic attractiveness, which increases as his annoying naivety decreases. However, the director’s choice to equate the charismatic, young and extremely fanciable Henry Wotton with an overweight, overaged Colin Firth may have just killed the film for me. His attempts to pull off such lines as “Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot” are disappointingly weak, and when later caked in makeup and given a grey wig to appear old, I did feel slightly ill. Basil is minutely better matched to the nervous Ben Chaplin, although the character’s latent homosexuality is poorly, then suddenly crudely, handled. Meanwhile, the backcombed red squirrel who plays 'beautiful' Sibyl Vane lacks something akin to serenity.
I do not wish to dissuade everybody from watching Dorian Gray. If you have not read the book, or are interested in witnessing either what a period-drama-sci-fi or a dwarf-Billie Piper-crossbreed would look like, the film will not disappoint. For all others though, I do strongly recommend heading to Waterstone's instead.
The entire plot is suffocated into the first hour of the screenplay. Many details and epigrams which season Wilde’s novel so well are thus neglected, including the wonderfully honest quotes “When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy", and “Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich". In their place is an entirely fabricated second hour which is not only unnecessary, but in fact detrimental. Dorian’s seditiousness becomes explicitly (though somewhat humorously) graphic, as does his ever decaying painting which ends up resembling more of an orc from Lord of the Rings than an 'off-the-rails' youth. And, just for bad measure, a new love interest is inserted in the form of actress Rebecca Hall, who is much too practical for the comedy.
The other characters are similarly ill casted. Admittedly, Ben Barnes as Dorian does have a convincing gothic attractiveness, which increases as his annoying naivety decreases. However, the director’s choice to equate the charismatic, young and extremely fanciable Henry Wotton with an overweight, overaged Colin Firth may have just killed the film for me. His attempts to pull off such lines as “Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to be faithless, and cannot” are disappointingly weak, and when later caked in makeup and given a grey wig to appear old, I did feel slightly ill. Basil is minutely better matched to the nervous Ben Chaplin, although the character’s latent homosexuality is poorly, then suddenly crudely, handled. Meanwhile, the backcombed red squirrel who plays 'beautiful' Sibyl Vane lacks something akin to serenity.
I do not wish to dissuade everybody from watching Dorian Gray. If you have not read the book, or are interested in witnessing either what a period-drama-sci-fi or a dwarf-Billie Piper-crossbreed would look like, the film will not disappoint. For all others though, I do strongly recommend heading to Waterstone's instead.
Here Is The Writer : Ing Chua-Lee
Ing was born and bred in London, and is absolutely in love with the city. She lived in Singapore as an expat for two years, interned in the City, then graduated from the University of York where she studied English Literature and History of Art. Excited by anything beautiful, hilarious and expensive, she is now enjoying being back and spending her time and money swanning around like nothing's changed.
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