The Picture of Dorian Gray

At the Outfest screening in July 2007, the director told us "If you haven't read the book, this picture will make no sense. For those of you who have read the book, I sincerely apologize." He also said "This is a difficult film." We thought he meant difficult to make, but after seeing it we realize he meant difficult to watch. He said his intent was to remake "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with the gay undertone highlighted. For whatever reason, he chose to throw out conventional film narrative style and make an experimental film. The result is dream-like, confusing, and disjoint. It's a hard film to make sense of, even if one knows the story well. If you aren't already familiar with the story, you'll have no idea what is going on.

The film does succeed in making explicit the gay subtext of the story and previous adaptations, but don't expect a conventional film.

Being a great fan of Duncan Roy's "AKA", I was very excited to see this work at the Miami filmfest. Sad to say, I was pretty much embarrassed to have brought my friends to "Dorian Gray." Where to begin? The film was plodding and in great need of editing. The dialog was unnatural & postured..even to the point of being silly. And plot...was there one? The split screens effects were interesting at times and more gimmicky at others. Even cute eye candy could not make you care about the characters or this sophomoric, unoriginal endeavor, for that matter . Most of the audience started shifting around & checking their watches halfway through the film...their thoughts mirroring mine of "when will this be over?!"

Duncan, please go back to narratives

I saw this on opening night at the Miami Gay Film Fest and I, along with about 98% of the audience, hated it. Everyone left hissing and didn't bother to stay for the Q&A with director Duncan Roy, who was just as pretentious on stage as his film was on screen. The film itself is clumsy, underwritten, and lazy, supposedly taking place in the 80s and 90s but clearly the budget was too small to hide the fact the backdrop is obviously 2005 New York. The acting was bad and the placing of dialogue as text in huge letters on the screen is about as film-school- amateur-ostentatious as you can get. Also the film was obviously trying to say something about the AIDS crisis among gay men but failed to register any conclusive facts or interesting ideas. As it is, this Picture of Dorian Gray is a sluggish piece if crap that will have a hard time getting theatrical release. Most likely, the film will go directly to HERE or LOGO or DVD where it will fade into bad movie obscurity.

I agree with the first poster. I was also in the audience last night and expected far better than what was shown. If the director hadn't said the film took place in 1990, one would have never known. (Besides, the art scene in Manhattan was over at that point, having peaked before the market crash in the late 80s). And to equate AIDS with getting old is an insult. The acting was uneven and some of the musical choices weren't inspiring. It was just plain dull! I think the applause was polite, out of respect for the director and actor in attendance, but I agree it was a mad dash for the exits..... Certainly not a movie for the multi-plex or the art houses, but one to go straight to DVD.

I saw this movie at a film festival in Cardiff and i have to say that i really enjoyed it. Duncan Roy has done an amazing job of updating the novel to present day while remaining true to Wildes story. David Gallagher is great as Dorian. He is suitably pretty and wide-eyed as the more innocent Dorian at the the beginning of the movie but is even better as the dangerous and crazed Dorian that he evolves in to towards the end. Chistian Camargo (from TV's Dexter) gives a stand-out performance as Henry Wotton. Probably one of the best Henry's i have ever seen. While some actors of the past have had trouble making Wildes lines flow naturally, Camargo delivers the lines with ease. Rebecca Wisocky as Henrys wife also steals the odd scene. And Noah Segan gave a heart-felt performance as a love-lorn Basil Hallward. The movie had a cool and edgy look. Everything from the clothes to the make-up to the sett pieces were a great mix of the very modern meeting the very classic. Giving the movie a sort of timeless feel. All together i had a great cinema experience watching this movie and i would recommend it to everyone.