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Yar, you be here: Wilde - Special Edition > Customer Reviews Wilde - Special Edition Customer Reviews (4 - 6 of 17 Reviews)WILDE OFF THE MARK
I can resist anything but temptation!In this case my Sun newspaper like review title.I have read all the customer reviews below and all of Oscar Wilde's complete works.I have seen most of his plays ("The Importance of being Ernest (1895)" many times over) and seen many other portrayals of the great Irishman.Yes Fry does look uncannily like Wilde and as he stated,it was the role he was born to play.What a pity then he was let down by the producer/scriptwriters!How I agree with my esteemed colleagues below who bemoan the trap the producers have fallen into of plugging the homosexual thing (presumably to sensationlise the prurient aspects of his life to "put bums on seats" by the non cognoscenti) but not showing on screen Wilde's flowing bon mots/aphorisms/epigrams/literature and sparkling converstion etc.We all have our favourites.Whereas we were treated to Fry vocalising excerpts from his "The Gentle Giant" read to his children, I was left frustrated by the lack of interest shown by the producers in Wilde's literature.Where were the scenes set in his publishers office as they discuss his latest work?.Where were the sophisticated dinner party converstions with other intellectuals?Where were the scenes showing him develop from his youth in Dublin and at Trinity College univerity there to produce the character he became?.Little was made of the relationship with his mother although this film did show his love for his children.We had to endure an obsession with the "Bosie" a.k.a.Lord Alfred Douglas thing but this was only part of his life!His failed scandal law case brought against The Marquis of Queensbury (father of "Bosie") and subsequent incarcaration in Reading gaol,always hogs the attention of film producers for rather obvious reasons.But why no scenes of him thinking out his "De Profundis" while he composed it in his cell? I know some people may think I am being unfashionable since homosexual matters had to be suggested in older versions rather than the modern "in yer face" style of modern adaptions.I had hoped for better. Beautiful, you will want to visit Paris...
In WILDE, Stephen Fry (Jeeves in "Jeeves and Wooster") is the consummate Wilde. Jude Law plays his lover Bosie Douglas. Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennett in "Pride and Predjudice") plays Wilde's long suffering wife. Vanessa Redgrave and Tom Wilkinson also have important roles. What a cast. The Belle Epoch is beautifully recreated as Wilde travels between England and France--clothes, interiors, architecture, grounds. You don't even have to understand the story to enjoy "being there" in the parks, homes, carrriages. Oscar Wilde was a writer, best remembered perhaps for "The Portrait of Dorian Grey" although modern audiences may be more familiar with his stage play "The Ideal Husband" (recently made into a film with Jeremy Northern and Cate Blanchett) or "The Importance of Being Earnest." Wilde was a homosexual in England in an age when one could and did go to prison for acting on instinct. (Nowadays in Saudia Arabia they take off your head.) Although the public became aware of his proclivities, Wilde remained one of Europe's most admired writers. Unfortunately, his term in prison for his sexual preferences may be remembered longer than his works which contain a wonderful drawing room humor many folks fail to grasp. This is a great film, and if you're an Anglophile you must add it to your collection. -- And Paris?? That's where Oscar is buried.
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