Dorian Gray

Wow. Seriously, this is a good film. It is fun, beautiful, gothic, sinful and disturbing all at once. I read the book  (Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray) before and I think the movie has done justice. Sure, the movie is much more graphic when it comes to portraying Dorian’s wild partying and pleasuring himself (and others) but hey, why not visualize to the maximum? After all this is what movies are for.

Ben Barnes does a terrific job as Dorian Gray. He starts out as this plain, decent and innocent young man. However his transition to the dark side- along with some interruptions and hesitations- are just brilliant. When Dorian comes to London to live in the house left to him upon his grandfather’s death, he is a nice guy- only burdened with a bad childhood. However if his troubled past has done any damage to Dorian’s soul, its after effects do not surface until he meets the charming Lord Henry (Colin Firth) – who just values pleasure, youth and beauty above anything. Dorian’s first friend in town is the talented artist Basil (Ben Chaplin). He is also fascinated by Dorian’s beauty and keeps drawing him. It is after Henry befriends Dorian that Basil paints the life-sized and life-version of Dorian. Affected by Henry’s remark that Dorian’s looks will fade while the painting will always remain the same, Dorian does “suggest” that maybe he should “give” his soul to the devil to stay as he is. Of course none of the men realize that Dorian “wish” will come true…

Dorian’s passage to the darker side is not immediate; and not without constant “assistance” from Lord Henry. Dorian is charmed by a young actress named Sybil. He courts her and their relationship is actually quite romantic and innocent. Dorian believes that they are going to be happily married. However Henry goes out of his way to change Dorian’s mind and opens a world of whores, sex with…endless number of partners and “drugs”. When Sybil realizes that Dorian has changed his mind, she throws herself into the river. Henry however marks the final blow to Dorian’s soul by not even letting him grieve properly and take the blame.

From then on, Dorian does anything that is sinful and pleasurable. Henry takes delight and satisfaction in Dorian’s acts – maybe because he is older and married, he can not go all that far. Dorian does a great job hiding the painting from everyone. The portrait shows all the ugliness of Dorian’s soul and all of the troubles he has caused. When Basil demands to see it, well…Dorian’s crimes go beyond “sexual”…

Dorian Gray is a gothic drama. It is no way meant to be horror film. I actually found it quite funny when a comment on imdb.com actually compared it to Buffy. It is a modern adaptation of a book that was way too modern and controversial for its time. While I fully agree with its “18”

rating, it does a good job at terrifying and entertaining the audience at the same time. But I also wonder what people think about Henry. Dorian does pretty horrendous things but it makes one question whether any of it could have happened without the influence of Henry. He pushed Dorian to commit almost all of the crimes. He never gave a second thought to who they would be hurting and the only time he showed a sign of humanity was when he thought his own daughter was in danger…

Enjoy this gothic ride to the dark side.

P.S. Is it just me or does Ben Chaplin look like Antonio Banderas?