It was only last night that I watched this film, I remember hearing bits and bobs about it when it was first released but didn't bother with it until recently, whilst browsing DVD's on Amazon, I came across it and decided to order it. It cost me £4.99.


-- Dorian Gray -- May Contain Spoilers --

After doing a bit of research I found, Dorian Gray the film, to be a British adaptation of Oscar Wilde 1891 novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray". The film was written by Toby Finlay, directed by Oliver Parker, starring Colin Firth and Ben Barnes and was released in September 2009.

It's Victorian times, (1800's) when Dorian Gray a beautiful, charming and powerful young man, first arrives in London, heading straight into the social scene, he instantly becomes very closely gaurded by the corrupt Lord Henry Wotton, who introduces Dorian to the seedy and sinful pleasures within the darker side of London life.
An artist paints a portrait of Dorian, with the results bearing the exact resemblance of him. Dorian is captivated with the picture and swears he would give anything to maintain the beauty and youth that his portrait displays.
He gets his wish, he is granted eternal youth in exchange for his soul. All is good for Dorian for a time, but things take a dramatic change for the worse, as he slips deeper and deeper into the deadly world of sin and evil. He has to somehow hide his secret of eternal youth and beauty, so decides to hide the portrait, and locks it away, out of sight because as he gets older, although his apperance remains the same, his portrait begins to age.
Dorian soon begins to realise, his wish for eternal youth and beauty was nothing more than a curse he received as a result of selling his soul to the devil.
When Dorian eventually finds true love, is it to late to save his soul.......

Run time: 107 mins.
sound track format and Audio Content: Dolby Digital Surround.
Audio Discription: Discriptive Audio Track for the Visually Impaired.
Feature Aspect Ratio: Widescreen version.
Genera: Horror/Fantasy.
Certificate 15.

Main Cast include:
Dorian Gray - Ben Barnes
Lord Henry "Harry" Wotton - Colin Firth
Basil Hallward (The Artist) - Ben Chaplin
Lady Victoria Wotton - Emilia Fox

Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray Soundtrack album can be downloaded from Amazon for £6.99

Special features include:
Commentary with Director and scriptwriter.
Making of Dorian Gray.
Deleted Scenes.
Bloopers.
Costume, location and effects featurettes.
Costume photo gallery.
Trailer.


--My thoughts on the film--

At first, I thought the film to be somewhat slow to get going. The film did get better as the pace began to speed up. The story I very much enjoyed, with both Colin Firth and Ben Barnes playing their parts excellently. I was a bit put off, by the parts of the film which displayed the scenes in the opium dens, which displayed scenes of sex and violence, a little much I thought, as the film is only a 15 certificate. However after saying that I suppose these scenes were needed to a certain extent, to show viewers the darker, more evil side of Dorian Gray.
As soon as the film got going properly I was very drawn in, it helps if the actors are convincing at playing their parts and in my opinion this was very much the case with this film.
The music used to accompany the film fit perfectly, and I liked it very much. The sound quality of the film was good, however the colour in the film itself was somewhat bland, it was difficult to tell sometimes, if the picture was black and white or indeed colour. But this did not spoil my enjoyment of the film and when all's said and done, I personally would have liked the film to continue further forward in time. I guess I was enjoying the film to the point that I just wanted the story to carry on and on.

So, I can say, I did enjoy the film once it got going properly, I will most probably watch it again and I may even purchase the book (that will probably be even better than the film).

I give this film 4 stars because in my opinion, it took a while to get going, but was good overall.

Thank you for reading my review which may also be posted on Ciao