Oscar Wilde is of course a grateful subject for a movie: still a well-known writer, controversial in his time (around 1900) for his homosexuality, his flamboyant lifestyle and his ‘immoral’ plays. This ‘biopic’ focuses on his passion for younger men, despite being married. Especially his love for young ‘Bosie’ is of great importance in his life. The violent father of Bosie accuses Wilde of ‘perverse behaviour’, which lead to the infamous Wilde trials. He is sentenced to years of hard labour. After he survived this, he ‘flees’ to Paris (the grave of Osacr Wilde at Père Lachaise is nowadays still visited by many admirers), where he is reunited with Bosie.
Visually it is a fine movie, with a convincing fin-de-siècle atmosphere, nice costumes and locations. I also like Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde, though Fry is mostly known as a comedian, he is very suited to portray an elegant dandy.
I was a bit disappointed though that there was not much attention for Wilde’s creative career, the film mostly deals with his lovelife. Also the ‘Wilde trials’ are dealt with rather quickly. But still an entertaining movie. On my dvd were no interesting extras, besides a text-only short biography. A missed opportunity to not include some documentaries about Oscar Wilde! But I read that there exists a special edition with more background info.
