Oscar Wilde

Wilde is a film about a man's passions destroying his life. Oscar Wilde was a very interesting man and discovered his dormant homosexuality late in life. The film was very tragic in a lot of ways. The love story between Wilde and Douglas was venomous and sweet. The performances by Jude Law and Stephen Fry were top notch. The direction was a little sluggish I thought and the film could have been better paced. The production design was great though and I loved listening to Wilde's sarcasm of the British class system. If you are a fan of Oscar Wilde, you will probably like this film more than the average movie fan.

I've seen Oscar Wilde portrayed on film before. I remember Robert Morley and also Peter Finch. They both provided inklings into the heart and mind of of one of the literary giants of the 19th Century. But one aspect of the tragedy, because, let's face it, it is a tragedy. His relationship with Alfred Douglas that in a very direct way, will mark his destiny. It was so difficult to believe that Peter Finch's Wilde will go to war for someone like John Frazer's Bosie. Good looking yes but devoid of the most important element, if you are going to believe in the power that Bosie had over Wilde. Finch and Frazer have the sexual chemistry of two slices of white bread but here, in this 1997 Wilde with Stephen Fry in the title role the mystery is revealed, Jude Law makes the whole thing totally believable. The desire he inspires we see in Oscar Wilde's eyes. Stephen Fry is another Humbert Humbert to Jude Law's Lolita. Amazing when the most incomprehensible action becomes totally understandable in the face of an actor. That alone, makes this Wilde my favorite.

"Wilde" is an elegant film with sterling performances by Fry, the title character, and a superb supporting cast. However, "Wilde" is also a shaded and skewed partial portrait of the 19th century playwright, poet, and master of the epigram. The film is not so much a biopic as it is a drama: A drama which spends too much time on the sensational aspects of the writer's life and not enough on his history, early life, idiosyncrasies, works, and last years. Nonetheless, "Wilde" is solid entertainment for anyone interested in Victorian period dramas or the man himself. (B+)

Stephen Fry is well cast as the 19th-century Irish author/playwright Oscar Wilde. This biopic deals frankly with his homosexuality and torment of being attracted to young men. Married with children, Wilde entered a passionate love affair with Lord 'Bosie' Douglas(Jude Law)the son of the Marquess of Queensberry(Tom Wilkinson). The affair led to a celebrated trial and two year prison sentence for outraging the decency of a stoic Victorian society. At times this film seems to drag, but is punctuated with the vivid homosexual love scenes. Supporting cast includes:Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Sheen and Jennifer Ehle.

The acting in this film was superb. As had many viewers--I suspect-- I had only seen Stephen Fry in the Blackadder and Wodehouse series. How delightful to find another actor intelligent and flexible enough to range from Melchett to Oscar Wilde! One cannot help but watch his face very carefully, waiting to see the mask slip. He seems strangely delicate in his huge, crushing frame...A nice follow-up movie to Velvet Goldmine, especially once you know that some of the dialogue from the latter was lifted from the works of Oscar Wilde.