It was pretty good. Ben Barnes gets naked--a lot more naked than I was expecting*--and Colin Firth smokes opium. In fact, add "smoking opium with Colin Firth" to my bucket list, okay? Yeah, that's right, Colin Firth plays Wotton. Can you believe that? Colin would be all "Let's have an orgy" and I'd be like, "Colin, are you high right now? OH WAIT". That was kind of weird, but I guess that explains why Colin is a little timid and in denial of his past in his later years when his daughter Amanda Bynes comes back into his life. Even the discrepancies I didn't really mind until the end, but I'll get to that later. There are even some super-awesome additions that made me happier than the book did... For example, there's this line that's been omitted between the original text and when it was actually printed in book form about Dorian's fondness of jam, which is a reference to his sexual preferences. In the movie, there's a scene that juxtaposes him at a high class tea and a wild orgy/opium party. At the very end of the scene, it shows him putting jam on a cracker or bagel or something. Uh-huuuuh. (It also reminded me how much I miss that meal and I had it for breakfast today. The actual meal, not the metaphor, though if you're offering...)
There's also a scene where Dorian begins to make out with Basil Hallward, which I liked because Basil is so in love with Dorian in the book it's ridiculous. And since it's Oscar Wilde, saying Basil's love of Dorian transcends admiration isn't so far of a stretch... But yeah. Catharsis? (Oh Chirico would be so proud of me.)
Also, while I'm thinking of it, this is another movie that makes being a turn-of-the-century prostitute look really, really fun. (The other movie is Moulin Rouge.) I'm just saying, if I had a time machine, I'd try it out. (I'd be sure to take penicillin with me, however.)
Like I said, the end was the only thing that didn't bode well with me. Other changes I was willing to overlook and could even understand why they had taken place (it's not like I was watching Prince Caspian or The Two Towers or anything!) but the ending bothered me. Wotton has a daughter in the movie named Emily. She is convenient, I admit, because in the book 18+ years pass, but it doesn't really ever click, regardless of the scene with James. In the movie however, when Dorian leaves, Mrs Wotton is pregnant--and then Dorian comes back and Colin's just like oh yeah, that's my kid. (Plus, there are automobiles and posters encouraging men to join the war effort, though of course we can't expect those sort of things to have appeared in Wilde's book.) But he falls in love with her, and all, and I'm kind of like, I know he sort of tries to redeem himself at the end of the book but this, I'm not feeling. And the way they treated the 'murder' scene that concludes the book was very unfavourable. It's far too over dramatic in my opinion, in the book it was a simple, dramatic, Shankspearian stab, in the movie his rotting self tries to escape the picture and he stabs it a few times and I'm just like guys. In this case, the understatement would have been better, I think. Maybe a shot of him lifting the dagger, light gleaming off of it, then him bringing it down and cutting to a spew of blood hitting the ground. Of course, the ending of the book would be difficult to put into film without seeming like an over dramatic 30's or 40's (isn't there a forties version of this?) movie, so I'm willing to let that slide, but... One thing I did like that, in the movie, the room is being consumed by fire--but in the end, we see what is left of the room, and the portrait is unharmed.
One interesting bit is that James attempts to strangle Dorian and very nearly succeeds. It made me curious as to what would have happened: Most likely the picture would have gone back to normal, I guess... Or maybe Dorian wouldn't have died!? Actually, now that I really think of it, it probably just would have been the former... I tried.
So yeah... I guess I don't really have much insightful to say, though I did enjoy the movie. It also inspired me to paint a portrait (of course). Unfortunately, I'm bereft of paint, my sketch pad, my inks, my fancy pencils--I'd even be willing to settle for oil pastels. So I just pencil and papered that, and here we are... (Now that I look at that there are a few eras which I have sense fixed, but I don't feel like sketching it again. Also, sorry about the obnoxious tag, but I'm always on the guard for folks like Ms Basetti.)
I did another one, but this certainly turned out better. I kind of like it smaller, too... (Please be kind about this, it's been a while since I've drawn a portrait--about five months, strangely enough, the last one was of Oscar Wilde... Well, that's not completely fair, five months since I've drawn a living person. In the beginning of the year I decided to do a serious portrait of Demos, however. I can't remember if I did Augustus too, though if I did I probably gave up halfway through. Love that boy, but he has such a weird face.) Oh, and the scene it is from is at Basil's funeral. Spoiler alert.Oh, also, the tagline to the movie is "Forever Young. Forever Cursed". Please tell me you can't take it seriously either; I'd really appreciate it if it wasn't just me.
*The first time he undresses you'd expect maybe he'd start off slow like, oh, there goes my shirt, but he was just like HEY, LOOK AT MY BUTT, IT'S MARVELOUS! And yeah. It was. Also, while we're talking about nudity, my favourite scene is def the one where it's this girl's eighteenth birthday and he's having sex with her, but the mother comes up into the room--so he has her hide under the bed. Then he has a quickie with the mom on top of the bed, and when she leaves he looks under the bed and goes "Now, where were we?" Awesome.
You know, I was thinking about Magnolia while writing this. If you remember (which you probably don't, because you never tweeted about it), I used it as the cryptic song lyrics for Collected Poems of Oscar Wilde. At the time, I had chosen them because it seemed to be a very decent summary of the last few years of Wilde's life before his imprisonment. "The lovers who have tainted you..." et cetera. But as I was thinking, I was kind of like, well, you could just as easily say that about Dorian Gray's life as well, no? Then I started thinking about the parallels. Though Wilde supposedly had a few homosexual (and heterosexual) liaisons before Lord Alfred Douglas, Douglas was the one that ruined him and also got him into male prostitutes (jury's out on the opium dens), and for Dorian that would be Wotton (though that would just be for wild implied liaisons in general and also murder and opium). And then that goes back to quotes, right? Not just "Life imitates Art", but also "Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose". Yes!? And then, on top of that, he has been quoted elsewhere is saying something along the lines of the fact that an author's first novel's main character is either Jesus or Faustus. That is, they take the high, good route, or the take the descending route. So clearly Dorian descended, and Wilde didn't heed his own warning ("I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never any use to oneself"!) and he became his own Faustus, "We are each our own devil and we make this world our hell".
Well then. You just witnessed a revelation.
Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: November Has Come by The Gorillaz
This post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Time--he's waiting in the wings, he speaks of senseless things, his script is you and me, boys.
No comments:
Post a Comment