Wilde

(1997, Brian Gilbert)

The question of this film's quality rests principally on the question of the accuracy of Stephen Fry's performance in the role of Oscar Wilde. If Wilde was a gentle, sensitive, intelligent, yet generally ungraceful, awkward and bumbling sort of chap, then Fry's performance is difficult to fault. If not, then Fry (coincidentally well-known as a gentle, sensitive, intelligent, yet generally ungraceful, awkward and bumbling sort of chap) is merely playing himself, and it was a severe miscalculation to have him cast in the role. Unfortunately, the resolution of this conundrum cannot be divulged here, since my knowledge of Wilde is limited to the basic biographical facts: author and playwright; renowned wit; tried and imprisoned for homosexual acts. I have no inkling whether he was, in essence, the kind of character that Fry portrays. Frankly, I had imagined him to be more of a powerhouse, more of a force of nature, like some kind of turn-of-the-century Oliver Reed (albeit much more pithy, and not quite so drunk). As played by Fry, he comes across as a kind of ... well, as a kind of turn-of-the-century Stephen Fry. For this reason, I watched the film with an acute sense of disappointment. Whether this ought to be blamed on Fry's performance or my own distorted conception of a famous historical figure I cannot say.
There is little worth noting about the film's other aspects. Jude Law, as Wilde's lover Bosie, demonstrates his undeniable talent for playing smug and arrogant, yet fragile and disturbed, characters; but this talent is insufficient to carry a film (further evidence of which, for those who wish to seek it, can be found in Mike Nichols' dismal turd of a film Closer). Wilde chugs along in the placid, efficient and unexciting manner of a three-part Sunday afternoon BBC period drama. True: it goes some way to augment the factual understanding of viewers such as myself whose knowledge of Wilde's life may be a little sketchy. But the majority the film's attention is focused on Wilde's relationships, and remarkably little light is cast on the man as an artist and intellectual. On the whole, this is a difficult film to damn by faint praise; better, then, to damn it by vague criticism.

Wilde @ IMDb(UK)