Dorian Gray

"A new Hedonism--that is what our century wants. You might be its visible symbol. With your personality there is nothing you could not do. The world belongs to you for a season...." - Lord Henry Wotton.

         Dorian Gray was made in 2009 and directed by Oliver Parker. It is based on Oscar Wilde's first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is the Faustian tale of a young man who, upon seeing a portrait of himself and becoming enamored with his own beauty, trades his soul for eternal youth. From that moment on, the painting ages in his place. It even grows hideous with Dorian's increasing decadence. As one might expect, the film plays up the novel's horror elements and even inserts some of it's own. For example, the movie adds an abusive grandfather subplot which never goes anywhere and has nothing to do with the overall story. The closest it gets to relevance is a scene where Dorian discovers the scars on his back (given to him by said grandfather) are gone, implying the picture gives him a mutant healing factor.

Pictured Above: Weapon X

          Okay, the novel never explicitly says the picture doesn't assume Dorian's physical wounds, but considering that little detail never comes up again either it's still rather pointless. Speaking of pointless, Basil Hallward, the guy who painted Dorian's picture, doesn't really seem to matter much in the film. In the book he's just about all that remains of Dorian's conscious, but in the movie he only exists to paint the portrait and, later, to show the audience how far Dorian has fallen. This brings us to Dorian's other influence, Harry.

"You would sacrifice anybody, Harry, for the sake of an epigram." - Dorian Gray.

          If Dorian Gray is Faust, then Lord Henry "Harry" Wotton is the Devil, though not a literal devil like Mephistopheles. That's what makes him interesting, though, as he seems oblivious to his status as Prince of Lies. He's not even all that evil; immoral perhaps, but not outright evil. As much as he promotes nihilistic hedonism, he never actually does anything all that bad. Oh sure, he's a bad influence on Dorian, but Basil considers Henry to be one of his best friends and he's still a nice guy. In fact, Dorian is the only person who responds to Henry's sayings with anything other than shock and/or contempt. The kid has no real opinions or convictions of his own and sucks up Henry's every casual remark like a sponge.

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful." - Lord Henry Wotton.

"I don't think I am likely to marry, Harry. I am too much in love. That is one of your aphorisms. I am putting it into practice, as I do everything that you say." - Dorian Gray.

          Henry sure doesn't seem to fully realize what he's done. When Dorian confesses to murder, Henry just laughs it off in disbelief and tells the kid to go play with his dolls. Really, his corruption of Dorian comes off as being less like this...



...and more like this.

 Only instead of a pole it's hookers and blow.



          In the film, Henry is much more sinister, at least at first, and much of his wit and charm is lost because of it. We frequently see him looking at Dorian in ways that could only be more villainous if he had a twirly mustache and a bi-plane. He also has this tendency to look on diabolically from the shadows when Dorian joins him in the Dark Side. Then this happens.

          Emily Wotton is original to the movie and serves to give Dorian one last chance at redemption, while at the same time turning Henry into a loving father trying to protect his only child from Dorian's wickedness. The movie suddenly starts portraying Beelzebub and the walking STD sympathetically, while pitting them against each other in a rather forced conflict. This is the film's biggest flaw; in the third act, it tries to be too many things. As soon as Emily is introduced, what began as a drama/horror about what happens when man is freed from consequence becomes the story of a lost soul finding his way with the power of love; a man who has to defend his family from a monster of his own creation a la Victor Frankenstein; an unfettered id confronting a hypocritical superego and, of course, what happens when man is freed from consequence. As interesting as all this could have been, the last half-hour of a two hour film just isn't enough time to properly introduce and develop these themes. Sadly, Dorian Gray took to long to realize what it wanted to be.