Dorian Gray is a 2009 British fantasy-horror drama film based on Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. The adaptation is directed by Oliver Parker, written by Toby Finlay (his first screenplay), and stars Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray and Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton. It tells the story of the title character, an attractive Englishman whose image is captured in an enchanted painting that keeps him from aging. His portrait becomes tainted with every sin he commits, while he remains young and handsome.
The film, which was released in the United Kingdom on 9 September 2009, competed in the Official Fantàstic Competition at the 2009 Sitges Film Festival.
Plot
When a naïve young Dorian Gray arrives in late Victorian London, by train, to inherit an estate left to him by his abusive grandfather, he is swept into a social whirlwind by the charismatic Lord Henry "Harry" Wotton, who introduces Gray to the hedonistic pleasures of the city. Lord Henry's friend, society artist Basil Hallward, paints a portrait of Gray to capture the full power of his youthful beauty. When the portrait is unveiled, Gray makes a flippant pledge: he would give anything to stay as he is in the picture—even his soul.
Gray meets and falls in love with budding young actress, Sibyl Vane. After a few weeks, he proposes marriage to her. Lord Henry tells Gray that having children is "the beginning of the end", and after the two men visit a brothel, Gray leaves Sibyl. Heartbroken, the young woman commits suicide by drowning. Gray learns of her death the following day from her brother, James ("Jim"), who also reveals that Sybil was pregnant with Gray's child. Enraged, Jim tries to kill Gray before being restrained and carried off by the authorities. Gray's initial grief soon disappears as Lord Henry persuades him that all events are mere experiences and without consequence. His hedonistic lifestyle worsens, distancing him from a concerned Hallward.
Gray returns home one evening to find that Hallward's portrait of him has become warped and twisted, and he soon realises that his off-hand pledge has come true; while the portrait ages, its owner's sins manifest as physical defects on the canvas. Before long, the curse imbued within Gray's portrait begins in earnest, resulting in Hallward's brutal murder after the artist reveals his secret. Gray dismembers and dumps Hallward's body in the River Thames, but the remains are soon recovered and eventually buried.
Gray decides to leave London to travel the world and he invites Lord Henry to join him as his companion, but he declines, citing his wife's pregnancy. After a 25-year absence, Gray stuns everyone at the welcoming party with his unchanged youthful appearance. He also meets and soon becomes close to Lord Henry's daughter, Emily, a member of the UK suffragette movement, much to her father's disapproval.
Although Gray appears genuinely interested in changing his ways as he spends time with Emily, matters are complicated when he is confronted by Jim, who continues to seek vengeance for his sister's death. Despite Gray's attempts to mislead Jim by pointing out his apparent age, Jim nevertheless deduces his true identity, but is killed by an oncoming train while pursuing Gray in the London Underground. Meanwhile, as Gray makes arrangements to leave London with Emily, Lord Henry's suspicions are confirmed when a study of old photographs triggers a memory where Gray had suggested that he would exchange his soul in return for eternal youth and beauty.
Breaking into Gray's home, Lord Henry discovers the concealed portrait, but is intercepted by Gray before he can uncover it. As Gray attempts to convince him of the authenticity of his feelings for Emily, Lord Henry suddenly discovers Basil's blood-stained scarf in a box. This prompts Gray to declare that he is the personification of the life Lord Henry fantasised about, but dared not pursue. Full of anger and grief, Gray attempts to strangle him but is distracted by Emily's call long enough for Lord Henry to knock him aside and expose the portrait.
Disgusted and horrified at the twisted sight on the canvas, Lord Henry throws a lit lamp at the portrait, causing it to catch fire, and then locks the gate of the attic to ensure that Gray and the painting are destroyed. Emily pleads with Gray for the key, but Gray instead confesses his love for her and turns his back as Lord Henry drags his daughter out of the burning mansion. Resolving to end his suffering, Gray impales the painting with a poker, causing his body to age rapidly, before the attic is consumed by an explosion.
A few months later, following a futile attempt to reconcile with Emily, Lord Henry, with his face partially burned, heads to his attic where he keeps the portrait of Gray as it was when Hallward painted it, grimly noting that nobody will look at it now. As Lord Henry leaves, the portrait's eyes glow, implying that Gray's soul is still alive even after his death.
Production
The film began shooting in summer 2008 at Ealing Studios and locations across London and finished in October. The film received £500,000 of National Lottery funding via the UK Film Council's Premiere Fund.
Release/Reception/Box Office
The film received mixed reviews. As of June 2020, the film holds an approval rating of 44% on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 39 reviews with an average rating of 5/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Despite a lavish and polished production, Dorian Gray is tame and uninspired with a lifeless performance by Ben Barnes in the title role."
Box office $22.4 million
My Review
Ben Barnes is Dorian Gray, a beautiful, innocent, wealthy young man in Victorian England. Ben Chaplin is Basil Hallward, a friend, who paints his portrait and captures his inner goodness. Another friend is Colin Firth, as Lord Wotton, the cynical guy who keeps coming up with these Wildeian apothegms. In an earlier film he was played perfectly by George Sanders as the flippant, catty gay man he was. But Colin Firth is no simple cad. He's an agelast. His smile is that of a reptile.
And although Hallward the artist warns Gray that rotten Wotton often says things he doesn't mean -- such as equating pleasure with happiness, and observing that even what seems like a tragedy is an experience one should undergo -- Gray takes his advice seriously.
Gray pursues his pleasure regardless of its cost to others. He proposes to the pretty naif, Sybil Vane, impregnates her, then brushes her off. She does a nosedive into the river. Gray shakes this off and really gets on the hedonic treadmill.
In the novel, this is the dullest part of the story. Wilde has Dorian Gray collecting overly ornate art, mooning over moonstones, caressing fabrics, and other michigas. Well, after all, this IS Victorian England, and Wilde couldn't very well write about the stuff we see here on the screen. Gray smokes dope, smooches with women in low places, draws blood (and maybe drinks it), seduces Hallward, and engages in other naughty bits of business.
After acquiring a devilish reputation, he travels abroad for years, picking his nose and smoking in public and Lord only knows what lesser sins he's committing. Yet, when he returns he glows with youth just as he always has. Meanwhile that portrait of Gray's early self, secure in the attic, has turned into a pustulating horror.
I doubt that this kind of story could have been so successful after Sigmund Freud and the discovery of the unconscious. Neither could "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." These are literary adumbrations of all those buried and unacknowledged libidinous impulses. That's what the portrait represents, of course. And of course we still lie to ourselves and each other -- beginning with "How are you today?" -- but not so dramatically.
It's impossible not to grin when George Sanders comes up with a line like, "The only way to conquer temptation is to yield to it," but this is a far darker version of the tale, taken quite seriously. You won't laugh when Gray dreams he is breaking the neck of Wotton's now fully grown and quite attractive daughter. When Wotton finds out they've been seeing one another, he doesn't laugh either.
It's a very different take on the story from what most people are used to, but it's very well done. By the way, that word, "agelast" is pronounced "AH-juh-list" and means "one who doesn't laugh." It's very rare. I had a heck of a time finding it, and I hope everyone appreciates that effortful enterprise. If they don't, well -- I think I'll just brood for a while and then have to get over it. 8/10
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