Maybe Dorian Beige would have been a better title. (Dorian Gray (DVD))

Member Name: magenta23

Product:	Dorian Gray (DVD)
Date:	29/09/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Colin Firth, some of the special effects

Disadvantages: Everything else

I'm not a huge film buff and only go to the cinema perhaps four or five times a year. I'm a bit fussy on films and so only once in a while I see a trailer or a poster and think 'I have to go and see that. ' The latest one to fall into the category was Dorian Gray.

Based on 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde, admittedly I have not read this but vaguely knew the story of a young man who never grew old. The film, in the style of it's posters and promotional material gave the impression of it having more than a splash of gothic horror, though the film didn't really live up to the suggestion.

The film tells the story of Dorian Gray, a handsome young man who moves to London into a grand house he has inherited. He instantly becomes a popular figure in social circles largely due to his good looks, captured in a portrait painted of him shortly after his arrival. He becomes great friends with Lord Henry Wotton, who introduces Dorian to the somewhat less respectable London underworld. Encouraging Dorian to live out all he wants to do while he's still young leads him into a life debauchary and violence. The painting is locked away after Dorian realises that he is not ageing, put the painting is. Will anyone find out the secret of his forever youthful looks?

It's a great story and had the potential to be a very good film. Shame then that it just didn't deliver. Ben Barnes, plays the handsome Dorian Gray and whilst very pretty he didn't make me feel anything for the character, in fact I couldn't care less what happened to him. The supporting cast also didn't really engage me at all, other that Colin Firth, who plays Lord Henry. His performance is the only thing that didn't stop me falling asleep or going home early. Delivering Wilde's witty lines to perfection, he provided a few well needed laughs, or I may have cried at the boredom of the whole thing.

Maybe this film would have been better if it wasn't as long, an hour TV drama perhaps. There simply is not enough story. Pretty boy gets a lots of girls, finds out he can't grow old and carries on getting lots of girls (and a few boys), and must make sure no one finds painting. That's it!

I get the idea that he's a bit of a Cassanova, he likes having sex with lots of women just because he can...by the third sex scene, I'd got the idea thanks very much. I'm not a prude but I do think there was far to much sex in this film, to the point where these sequences didn't add anything to the story, but seemed as though they were just filling time. Annoying to me as well is how the whole film is based around the fact that Dorian is so attractive yet most of these scenes focus on the women writhing around. Quite obviously directed by a man.

The special effects on the final scenes where the audience see the aged painting are very good, in fact the final scenes are the best of the film. It's lucky I saw this on the big screen however, because if I was watching this on the television at home I would have turned off long before it got to these.

Overall, thoroughly disappointing. One star for the final scene and one for Colin Firth.

Summary: Yawn.