Dorian Gray

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There has been more than a few adaptations of Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray and this is Oliver Parker's third attempt at a Wilde story after An Ideal Husband and The Importance Of Being Ernest. This outing is a solid if functional entry to the director's canon.

Set in London around the turn of the 20th century, the handsome Dorian Gray arrives in the city to inherit his grandfather's house, a grandfather who blamed him for the death of Dorian's mother. Employing new friend Basil (Chaplin) to paint his portrait, Dorian wishes that he could stay this beautiful forever. Somehow that wish is granted and as Dorian succumbs to alcohol, drugs, sexual deviancy and other dark pleasures of the London underground, his portrait takes the hit, changing from a work of art into a grotesque nightmare - a reflection of his soul. Hiding the portrait in the attic, Dorian goes about exploring the dark avenues of the soul, but that picture can't be ignored forever.

Parker steeps the aesthetics in gothic horror, painting London like a nightmarish landscape from which there is no escape - all shadows, mist, and dark tunnels where decomposing bodies and scabby prostitutes loom. Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian, Stardust) is pretty enough to play Dorian, but he's playing a character that doesn't have anything interesting to say. Colin Firth is fun but his cynical Harry Wooten, the catalyst in Dorian's descent, becomes obsolete too soon, hanging around the fringes waiting for the plot to come his way again. The actor that really shines is the underrated Ben Chaplin.

It's hard to critique the script by first timer Toby Finlay, as who knows what might have been cut from the final version, but as it stands there are two major problems with Dorian Gray and they come in the character of Dorian himself. Finlay might have been more hesitant in Dorian's transition from the naive and innocent to devilish and despicable but Parker rushes the changeover - it's hard to believe he'd turn that bad that quickly, and the same goes for Dorian's belated attempt at redemption. These are crucial to the story and the audience's sympathy for Dorian but they are treated too lightly.