Wilde

Wilde
October 17, 1997
BBC (among many others)
Historical, Romance, Drama
DVD
B+

This is an adaptation of the Ellman biography, reviewed here:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/search?q=ellman.  Yes, this is certainly a case of the movie being better than the book, helped along by strong performances and uncanny casting.  Witty, gay Stephen Fry (then 40) is of course typecast as the title character, but he also brings out Wilde's vulnerability and kindness.  As Bosie, Wilde's great love, 24-year-old Jude Law brings not just blond beauty but a mixture of arrogance and charm.  (Forgive me, but I kept thinking it was like watching Draco Malfoy's great-great-grandfather.)  Jennifer Ehle, who was perfect as Lizzy in the TV adaptation of Pride & Prejudice a couple years earlier, somehow manages to play Wilde's wife Constance without making her a saint and shows us why Oscar did in some sense always love her.  I also must mention Michael Sheen as Robbie Ross, who matures from Wilde's first seducer to a true friend.  (Sheen would go on to the scenery-chewing role of Aro in the Twilight series, which I've watched for the lulz but don't own.)

If the movie has any weakness, it is that there is so much focus on Wilde's love life and not enough on his writing.  Still, there is enough of his works, particularly The Selfish Giant (which becomes a motif for the conflict between his family life and his "nature," i.e. homosexuality), that I can tag Wilde.  (I suppose Wilde was arguably bisexual, but much more oriented towards men.)  Needless to say, this movie is much more explicit than In & Out was, although never pornographic.  However, unlike the Kevin Kline movie, it does end tragically, because Wilde's life ended tragically.

Tom Wilkinson, who's quite good as Bosie's father the Marquess of Queensberry, played a very different father, Mr. Dashwood, in Sense & Sensibility.  Ironically, Gemma Jones is again playing his wife (well, ex-wife here), although they don't have scenes with each other in either film.  She would become Madam Pomfrey in the Harry Potter series, while Zoe Wanamaker, who plays Wilde's supportive friend Ada Leverson, nicknamed the Sphinx, would be Madame Hooch in the first Potter film.