The Mocking of Dorian Gray

I’d have a lot to say about this. But I’ll try to be concise. I was very much looking forward to seeing the film “Dorian Gray” as the book “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is one of my favourite works in English Literature and definitely Wilde at his best. But yesterday night when I finally managed to get to see it I was totally disappointed. It had a lot of potential and didn’t start too badly (apart from Dorian not having his blond and soft curly hair!!!) but then it degenerated in a cheaply horror approach that wouldn’t be out of place in a kids’ horror series. The acting was ok (Colin Firth is excellent as usual as the Mephistophelian Lord Henry Wotton) but the characters just seemed very 2D and I didn’t feel emotionally engaged at all. Ben Barnes (the boring Prince Caspian from the second Narnia film) tried his best to portray the transition from innocence to decadence and debauchery but the result is rather wooden. The screenwriter/director clearly decided to interpret Wilde’s classic book his own alternative way, cutting off and changing scenes even the timing of the story to his liking, but this wouldn’t have been too terrible if he had managed to keep the essence of the book. He didn’t. Just wait to see the cheesy B-movie horror ending! The only consolation is that I saw the film on an Orange Wednesday offer (ie. 2 for 1) otherwise I would have even dared to ask for my money back!

(PS. I’m still having Internet connection issues, but I’m hoping to migrate to BT Broadband next week and maybe it will get better. Fingers crossed!)