Film Review: Dorian Gray (Spoilers)

Director Oliver Parker’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ succeeds neither in shocking, nor in offending; it also fails to say anything particularly interesting about the nature of morality. Whilst it’s superficially entertaining and never really gets anything wrong, it sidesteps all the issues which make Wilde’s premise so interesting. The beautiful and powerful Gray (Ben Barnes) is encouraged by self-styled mentor Lord Wotton (Colin Firth) to rebel against the sexual constraints of late Victorian society. And one day, whilst sitting for admiring painter Ben Chaplin, he also unwittingly sells his soul to an unseen devil. The picture then withers, decays and degenerates, whilst Gray remains forever young, his soul trapped inside the picture. It’s a great prism through which to contrast that century’s priorities with today’s obsession with youth and beauty, but it’s also a great morality play – ahead of its time – with which to contrast Victorian English life, and today’s sexually liberated morals.

And yet it never quite works. Gray’s debauchery exposes the darker and unfulfilled yearnings sitting under the surface in Victorian England. He isn’t afraid to sleep with the young, the old, with both women and men – he casts them aside and ignores the consequences, as he embraces the self at all costs. This is no stretch for the insanely beautiful Barnes, but he’s all doe-eyed when asked to show anything other than lust; chalk it down to inexperience, but he’s simply not up to a deeper look at his character or the film’s issues. You get the sense too that Parker is also out of his depth – the opportunity to contrast Victorian morals with modern ones is missed – orgies and gay sex rarely shock these days, and Gray’s permanent youth and beauty would shock in either age, yet Parker and screenwriter Toby Finlay play up the gothic horror undertones instead. It’s a character study which never really studies the character and a timeless morality play about the consequences of our behaviour, but noone seems to have noticed.

The film does have significant merits – chiefly Colin Firth as Lord Wotton, who as Gray’s mentor, encourages the young beauty to embrace his life of hedonism. In contrast with the disappointing, one-note performance by Barnes, Firth gives a barnstorming performance as the powerful socialite who, unlike his protegé, never really practices what he preaches, and can age and does change. Firth is clearly aware of his character’s role in defining his co-star’s and does everything in his power to overcome the limitations of the direction and script. The later scenes between him and Barnes are particularly impressive when the seemingly immortal Gray embarks on a relationship with Wotton’s daughter Emily (Rebecca Hall), forcing Wotton (and later Gray) to choose between his morals and his desires. If only the film as a whole had had such insight. There could have been an element of quite incisive social commentary; without it the film is never much more than an amusing and quite familiar romp within the confines of gentle horror. It’s entertaining but never really satisfies.

6/10