Customer Reviews
Englishmen in love - By: B. W. Jenner, 10 Nov 2008 
This was an informative & sensitive portrayal of the life of Oscar Wilde. Julian Mitchell weavesin the script lots of Wildean witticisms, & the pity of his Oscar's genius abused comes across. Having read about Wilde's death, I would have liked the film to have ended with that scene. It could have been an English Cyrano de Bergerac.
An enjoyable & rich English film which doesn't quite earn classic status.
Excellent Acting By Jude Law - By: L, 23 May 2008 
I kept watching this film as I found it extremely fascinating. All the actors were noteworthy, but Jude Law as Bosie was easily the star of it. I especially liked the sulky, spoilt attitude he depicted when Bosie declared he was bored of livingin the country & later when Oscar was illin bed!
Jude Law is superb & he is truly Britain's finest export as an international actor. Surely he has cupboards full of statuettes after this film's main character's namesake?
I think there are many ways one could portray Oscar Wilde. Instead of focusing solely on his famous `wit', this film allowed his personal life to be the area of interest & it worked brilliantly.
We rarely get to witness raw malenessin the media; that emphasisin my humble opinion, lands far too much on women. As a woman myself it gets nauseating but this was a bit of a breath of fresh air.
I don't know where the setting was but the movie had a very colonial feel which heightened the British aristocracy angle.
The not so subtle attack on Christians was unnecessary when Boise's dad met Wilde but a dogmatic person was right for the film as such people existed, (and still do), believing they were delivering society from `evils' as Oscar Wilde.
Buy this DVD & enjoy.
It's a wild Wilde life -- and a fascinating film - By: Daniel Jolley, 27 May 2007 I have somewhat conflicting opinions about this film, just as I have conflicting opinions about Oscar Wilde himself. No one can dispute the fact that Wilde was a literary genius; ample proof of this is foundin the successful rehabilitation of his workin reputation long before the aspects of his infamous lifestyle became acceptable to even a minor fraction of society. If, as hardly seems possible, you aren't aware of the scandal associated with Wilde's downfall, this film spares the viewer few of the most intimate of details (in other words, there is male nudity - & plenty of it). It's a brave film, featuring a most accomplished class of actors & actresses turningin terrific performances, but it doesn't feel perfectly complete to me. Rather than delivering a flamboyant Oscar Wilde who truly reveledin his own audacity, this Oscar Wilde seemed subdued & sometimes even haunted by the lifestyle he led. While his wit is demonstrated quite often, this didn't quite seem like the young man who became the toast of London before he met with his first literary success & reveledin the danger inherentin his forays into the London underworld of homosexuality. Maybe it's just impossible to capture the true spirit of this most singular of men, but I just felt as if this film tried to cast Wilde as something of a victim led astray by all these pretty young boys & a man doomed by his own nature, & I don't completely buy into that.
I was also somewhat disappointed by the fact that Wilde's writing played only an incidental rolein this story. We don't get a very good sense of the shocking nature of The Picture of Dorian Gray to Victorian society, apart from the comments of young Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas (Jude Law) upon his introduction to the author, & Wilde's successful plays provide little more than short momentsin the sun for Wilde to receive the cheers of appreciative audiences on opening nights. There's basically no commentary on the relationship between Wilde's writing & his life.
I don't want to sound too negative, however, as I think this is a wonderful film. Stephen Fry makes for a wonderful, albeit subdued, Oscar Wilde, but Jude Law turnsin a much more memorable performance as Bosie. With his flamboyant nature, sudden mood swings between devil-may-care flamboyance & taciturn childishness, & natural coquettishness, he dominates one scene after another. Wilde,in fact, becomes something of a pathetic creature at times, a helpless instrumentin the hands of a young seducer whom he must suspect will ultimately lead to his downfall & disgrace. Certainly, there was little chance of keeping this extended dalliance a protected secret, but one cannot blame Bosie's father - evil brute that he was - from seeking Wilde's destruction. The irony, of course, is that Wilde engineered his own downfall, as it was his decision to sue the Marquess of Queensberry for libel (and to thereby perjure himselfin court) that led to his arrest for gross indecency.
I certainly can't admire anything about Oscar Wilde's personal life beyond his brave determination to be nothing less than who he truly was, even when that meant facing two back-breaking years of manual laborin prison. I do admire his genius, however, & I don't think there's any doubt that his exploits influenced the society of his day & age.
He helped define one era & usheredin the dawn of a new one. Most of all, he was just bloody fascinating. Any movie about his life would be noteworthy, & this one is certainly that.
