Director: Oliver Parker
Starring: Ben Barnes, Colin Firth & Rebecca Hall
An unimpressive adaptation of the classic Oscar Wilde novel, Dorian Gray fails to truly chill or impress with its story or its cast’s performances.
Having already been many times for cinema and television, the latest adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, is likely the most commercial adaptation in recent memory. Simply titled Dorian Gray, starring Ben Barnes from the film Prince Caspian and veteran actor of British dramas, Colin Firth, this adaptation is less faithful to the source material than some previous adaptations, inserting an additional love interest and is, unfortunately, unimpressive in its execution.
Dorian Gray (Barnes), arriving in London having inherited his Uncle’s estate and wealth, is inducted into high society through the help of a painter friend named Basil (Ben Chaplin) and the charming and hedonistic Henry Wotton (Firth). Despite the urge for caution given by Basil, Dorian finds himself seduced by the glamour of a life of youth and riches can afford under the guidance of Henry. When asked whether he’d trade is soul to maintain his youth, looks and fortune, Dorian accepts however a curse is planted upon a portrait of Dorian painted by Basil meaning Dorian will no longer age or suffer harm with such acts suffered by his portrait instead. After a doomed romance with a young actress named Sibyl (Rachel Hurd-Wood), Dorian loses his idealism regarding love and embraces a life of lust and debauchery as his portrait degrades and corrupts revealing the effects upon his soul until Dorian fearing the consequences of his lifestyle years later, looks to redeem himself with the help of Henry’s, now grown, daughter Emily (Hall).
This adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray is very unsatisfactory. Feeling as though the filmmakers chose to oversimplify the story in the hopes of making the material more attractive to a wider audience less familiar with the novel on which it is based, Dorian Gray ends up feeling too underdeveloped to really satisfy and especially unappealing to fans of the source material as the adaptation adds new characters, a love interest and plays up hopes of the main character’s redemption and playing down the true cruelties the character displays in the novel. Behavioural developments amongst some characters, particularly that of Dorian Gray, are mismanaged and progress to quickly to be believable such as Dorian’s progression from innocent youth to debauched adulthood and his relationships with his two main love interests Sibyl and Emily blossom too suddenly to be believable, particularly from the perspective of the female characters themselves. Add some poor CGI used to aid in the recreation of Victorian London and in the realisation of Dorian’s portrait which, along with CGI, includes heavy sound effects and musical cues to force drama and the overall feeling of the film is one that lacks subtly and depth, eager to go for easy scares and emotional reactions.
Ben Barnes is unimpressive in the lead role of Dorian Gray. Whilst possessing the requisite youth and good looks required for the role, his relative inexperience as an actor shows as he is less able to accurately convey the character’s fall from innocence often coming across as a broody teenager than truly sinister or dangerous. Many other actors are barely developed through their performances either. The usually impressive Rebecca Hall struggles to add depth to her role as Emily who, on all appearances, comes over as smart yet falls for Dorian too quickly to be believable while Ben Chaplin is only decent as the well-intentioned artist Basil. The only enjoyable performance in the film is Colin Firth as Henry who appears to relish the opportunity to play a darker, more hell-raising role and though the character and performance is largely one note, it is still an enjoyable one thanks to Firth.
Overall, Dorian Gray is a disappointment. Opting for easy scares rather than building mood and more subtle shocks and featuring several average to poor performances from its cast, especially Barnes in the lead role, the film fails to really scare or make you care about any of its characters. It has some enjoyment in Colin Firth’s devilish performance as Henry, but it is not enough to make the film worth recommending.
Rating: 2/5
