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Wilde - Special Edition Customer Reviews (7 - 9 of 17 Reviews)

I would recommend to anyone who enjoys this film the biography on which it is based, "Wilde," by Richard Ellman. It is very long but don't let that put you off; it is FASCINATING and reads very quickly. The film is an excellent supplement but you really get (almost!) the whole story in the book.

Heart Behind the Wit
Oscar Wilde's life was drama in the making, from his raucous and wonderful comedies, to his ridiculously unfair and dark imprisonment. Fortunately, Wilde captures the best and worst of it all, wonderful, in the movie "Wilde".

Much of the credit of this film must go to Stephen Fry's marvelous performance as Wilde himself. This was the role Fry was born to play. To portray a man seemingly larger than life can be a tricky role: it leads to overacting and an unbelievable quality as Wilde's best one liners roll off his tongue. But Fry captures his humility, making him human and believable. You think, as he recounts of his best lines, they are truly parts of the conversation and not merely injected to make people laugh.

Fry also keys into the heartbreak behind the man, in trying to deal with his wife Constance, in an equally amazing performance by Jennifer Ehle, and his true love, the disturbed, spoiled Bosie Douglas, in another amazing performace by Jude Law. Wilde's caught between two worlds he desparately wants to join, that of being a father and being with the man he loves. His trail only adds to the sadness, so when he falls into prison, you realize that perhaps, his time in incarceration started before the trial took place.

Wilde was a genuis, to be sure, and this film is our reminder that the man deserves the recognition in the US as he's earned in the rest of the world.

Oscars for Wilde
There can only be one explanation for why this movie wasn't revered and esteemed world over. Society really hasn't changed that much since the times portrayed in 'Wilde.' But this isn't supposed to be a social commentary, but a grand ovation for what is, in my opinion, one of the best movies ever. To begin with, the performances of Stephen Fry and Jude Law are really quite extrordinary. Stephen Fry, in particular, manages not only to look unnervingly like Oscar Wilde, but to embody the wonderful (and complicated) character to an uncanny extent. I applaud Jude Law as well for choosing movies like this instead of (or perhaps as well as ^_^) the normal Hollywood teen fare. He really does give a frighteningly good performance, manic depressive to the core. Jennifer Ehle is also very good in the understated but understanding role of Wilde's wife. All in all, I was really blown away by this movie. Not only is it an incredible tribute to Wilde's wit, but also to his life, to the "love that dare not speak its name" and how it is as true and wonderful a love as any other. Sometimes painful, always powerful, Wilde is a rare gem.