By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2 cats
Director: Duncan Roy
Country: united_states
Year: 2007
Running time: 97
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435669/
Michael says: “British director Duncan Roy got a little attention several years ago with AKA, a film about a young working class man who impersonates an aristocrat. For his latest film, Roy creates a modern adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s well-known novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. In the film, Dorian Gray is the wealthy son of a deceased gangster who is young, beautiful and pure of heart. He has a young woman who loves him, and a posse of gay men who long for him despite the fact that one of the three things he wouldn’t do no matter what is sleep with a man. Around Dorian are men with less pure intent. There’s Henry, an agent who sees in Dorian someone with the potential to be very much like him, lacking scruples or a conscience. Then there is Gabriel, the mysterious, handsome man who appears to Dorian periodically seducing him to a darker side. Basil is a young, promising artist who upon meeting Dorian, falls deeply in love with him, and creates a video installation, the subject of which is Dorian, that becomes his masterpiece. Through some dark and shady machinations (including some steamy sex) involving Gabriel, the video installation becomes the receptacle for Dorian’s sins (which include, apparently, aging), but in exchange, Dorian loses his purity and becomes cold, cruel and monstrous.
“Roy knows how to make a film that’s visually interesting, using multiple panels, text for dialogue he chooses to emphasize, bold colors and neon, and interesting camera shots. Where he falls is in his screenplay, which takes the themes of Wilde’s story and updates them to a modern day story wrapping a youth-obsessed culture and AIDS into it. Unfortunately he keeps things oh-so serious which makes of a pretty pretentious film. As Dorian sacrifices his soul, the tone shifts to that of a horror film. Perhaps if Roy had chosen to lighten the tone with some humor it would have worked better. Obviously much of the story relies upon Dorian’s beauty, and I don’t find that youthful teenage look to be all that interesting. Worse, there is an odd, yet prevalent homophobia underlying the film which makes for interesting viewing at a gay and lesbian film festival. Upon reading Bruce’sreview of AKA, there seems to be another unsettling theme running through Roy’s work: that homosexuality is connected with sexual abuse thus underlying the homophobia. Ultimately, while sometimes interesting to watch, and containing some watchable performances, THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY is a failure. 2 cats
“Chlotrudis co-presented Duncan Roy’s THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY at the Boston Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.”