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“You have only two things worth having – youth, and beauty”. Oscar Wilde's devil child gets dusted off in a chilling remake by the mercurial Oliver Parker (The Importance of Being Earnest and, er, St Trinians). Fortunately, much more of the period former than the camp latter is folded into this stinging tale of unchecked morality. Parker teams once again with Colin Firth as Gray's mentor and signs up boyish Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia, Easy Virtue) in the lead role.
Impressionable Dorian Gray arrives for his first season in London whereupon the fresh faced youth is seized upon by cynical Lord Wotton. Looking to corrupt the lad's impossible naivete, he re-educates Gray about the virtue of virtue. In doing so, the youngster unwittingly barters his soul in a pact with the devil – a portrait will age while Gray does not, setting him free to indulge his every whim. And indulge he does. But as Gray works harder and harder to protect his great secret from those he now cares about, tragedy advances with the inevitably of age.
Wilde's self-loathing leaps to the fore in Dorian Gray, perfectly encapsulated by Firth's extraordinarily nuanced performance. As Gray lives an unbridled life he dare not himself, Wotton delivers an endless string of perfectly timed epigrams that point to the longing and the hatred. Firth is the perfect foil for Barne's puppy-ish Gray, even as the youngster becomes more like Wotton than the lusty Lord himself. Theirs is a decisive blend that helps ease viewers past some of Parker's less polished and over-heated, moments helping create a compelling picture of Dorian Gray, a winning blend of 19th century gothic filtered through 21st century zeitgeist.
// COLIN FRASER
moviereview colin fraser film movie australia review critic flicks