Leading a life of debauchery and vice, Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes) remains forever youthful, a portrait locked in his attic aging and decaying in his stead.

CRITIQUE

This latest--and very loose--adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s lone novel is a handsome, impressively mounted undertaking. It’s populated by a capable cast, and modern freedoms allow it to portray elements of Wilde’s tale that had to be softened or dropped altogether in past cinematic translations. But while purists will bemoan the alterations made to the story simply for the sake of bemoaning them, there’s one change that blunts the impact of the story and handicaps the movie, that being the motivations behind Gray’s hedonistic ways.

It’s understandable why director Oliver Parker (who directed a film version of Wilde’s A Suitable Husband a few years back and helmed a quite good adaptation of Othello back in the ‘90s) and neophyte screenwriter Toby Finlay chose to ignore the motivation Wilde gave Gray in the book, but they failed to come up with a suitable replacement. Consequently, the question of why Gray chooses such a path constantly nags.

Countless adaptations of this story have surfaced over the years (including some really stupid ones in the past thirty or so years), but for some reason this tale never gets old. Wilde’s conceit is a damned clever one. Even had the novel not been great as a whole, the concept itself would have given it classic status (as happened with Frankenstein, which is pretty dopey, and Dracula, which is a bore).

But it is a great work, witty, extremely well written, and laced with biting satire aimed at the hypocrisy of Victorian England. As you might expect, much of that satire has been excised here, leaving only the plot itself, which is more than enough to carry a movie. Hopefully one day someone will come up with a script that successfully balances the basic story and the satirical elements, but even if it happens I doubt any studio would be willing to cough up the dough, seeing as how satire doesn’t play to mass audiences.

Anyway, what you get here in place of the satire is a smattering of straightforward sex and violence, which I suppose is a good enough substitute, especially when it comes to the scene in which Gray gleefully seduces a debutante and her mother during the former’s coming-out ball. It’s a scene Wilde undoubtedly would have enjoyed, and it illustrates what the movie’s capable of when it’s working.

But Parker does push things a little too far when it comes to the sex and violence, resorting to unnecessary camera acrobatics (he shoots opium-dream sequences the same way practically every other director who’s ever shot one has) and bloodletting that can come across as self-indulgent. Dorian dispatches a potential enemy by stabbing the man in the neck and then plunging the blade into his chest several times, and you get the feeling Parker is showing this just because he can.

And things really get out of hand during the final reel, which is visually misguided and illogical; Dorian’s actions don’t make a whole lot of sense (his motivations become even more muddled) and the overblown, effects-laden finale seems more like something from an ‘80s fantasy flick (Young Sherlock Holmes is what popped into my mind). All of this seems like a transparent attempt to move the movie out of the Masterpiece Theater hole some may assumed it would fall into, an attempt to placate a modern audience not particularly interested in watching yet another version of a story that has been around for more than a century.

I wasn’t terribly impressed by Barnes when I saw him in Prince Caspian, but he’s much better here. Not great, mind you, but nevertheless good enough you have to wonder why he was so stiff and dull in that movie. It could be that he realized he was going to have to try harder if he had a chance of holding his ground against Colin Firth, who appears here as Lord Henry Wotton, the man under whose hedonistic spell Dorian falls. It’s no secret Lord Wotton was an analog for Wilde’s public persona, charming and offensive in equal measure, and dropping witticisms into every other sentence, and Firth, as always, is great in the role.          

THE VIDEO

The 1.78:/1080p transfer--encoded with VC-1--boasts a slick image. Earth tones dominate the visuals, with rich browns and grays filling shots. Scenes often look as they’ve been lit to mimic gas- or candlelight, yet done so without rendering the image murky or flat, so there is a nice sense of depth in the image. The numerous blacks can crush at times, encroaching on or swallowing anything they touch. 

THE AUDIO

Audio comes in the form of a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Given the subject matter, I wasn’t expecting such a loud, lively mix; the surrounds pump atmosphere in interiors and quieter scenes, then open nicely for exteriors, channeling some very good directional effects. Bass action is healthy. Dialogue can be problematic a times; the mix attempts to give a sense of distance, dropping the volume whenever a speaking character moves to the back of the frame, but too often the level drops too far, rendering many lines unintelligible.

Although the packaging lists a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, one has not been included on the disc; a 2.0 Audio Descriptive track is available, as are English SDH subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

The commentary by director Oliver Parker and screenwriter Toby Finlay is fairly interesting (it’s likely the only time you’ll ever hear a discussion of how American Psycho and Training Day influenced an Oscar Wilde adaptation), but it’s also fairly dry (they don’t chuckle even when mentioning how the first depiction of Dorian’s bisexuality sent some old ladies frantically running out of a test screening). 

With one noted exception, the following are presented in standard definition:

The Making of Dorian Gray (19 minutes) goes the usual route of combining cast/crew interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and clips from the movie.

Four featurettes (8 minutes total) offer brief looks at the costume and make-up design, the creation of the painting, and the various visual effects. 

A few deleted scenes (6 minutes) are offered in one lump; half of them were wisely cut, while the other hand arguably should have remained.  

A blooper reel (9 minutes) contains the usual missed cues, flubbed lines, and on-set bouts of laughter.

A photo gallery (1 minute, HD) showcases some costume design sketches.

Closing things out is the movie’s theatrical trailer.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The definitive screen version of Dorian Gray has yet to be made, but this one will more or less do until that one finally does come along.