1/10
Glad Wilde himself does not have to watch it...
3 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
What a shame! i can't believe i have watched it till the end! Basil a woman? it just spoiled everything. how about "the love that dare not speak its name", "such love as Michael Angelo had known, and Montaigne, and Winckelmann, and Shakespeare himself"? how can the director justify himself about the secrecy hidden in the picture that Basil does not want to reveal at first, and HIS confession to Dorian later? If basil is a woman, what's the necessary of putting these in the film any more? And divided the work into "influence", "sin", "redemption", etc? It just cut Wilde's masterpiece and his thoughts into pieces, and ruin the intricacy of the original work. The director just imposed his interpretation of the novel upon us, which unfortunately, I can hardly agree. What's more, he ruined all the characters, Basil, Dorian (what's the use of the bed scene with Sybil? and the wedding of Basil and Henry, by the way?) and Henry finally. Why replacing Campbell, who disposed Basil's body, with Henry?! Henry is supposed to be a spectator, staying unmoved in this story. It's far too away from his cynical aphorism, which seems as one of the only things left in this version worth watching. Forgive me for being so angry at this film. I just cannot stand Oscar Wilde's masterpiece being ruined like that. I know everyone has a different understanding at this work, but i really don't think it would be what the writer himself wanted to reveal or rather conceal. I wish I hadn't watched it. Yet, fortunately, Wilde himself does not have to!
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