RUPERT’ ’S STILL WILDE ABOUT FALLEN OSCAR
RUPERT Everett wrote and directed this film about the squalid final years in the life of Oscar Wilde, between the disgrace of his 1895 conviction for gross in decency and his death, aged 46, in 1900.
He takes the lead role, too. For Everett (the importance of being Oscar should not be under-estimated. He has also played him on stage, and has featured in several screen adaptations of Wilde’s plays.
Plainly, this is a passion project, and happily, Everett (making his directorial debut) does his celebrated subject full justice, presenting him compellingly not as a caricature, dispending rapier one-
The Happy Prince (15A) Verdict: An Oscar for Everett
liners all over the place, but as a sad, complex, brilliant, tragic, flawed man.
It is a shock to see him, as it doubtless was to see Wilde once prison had reduced him. He is overweight, jowly, a shambling, self-pitying shadow of his former self, yet still capable of holding an audience spellbound with his wit and charisma.
Sweetly, in his Parisian exile, he treats an urchin and his older brother to a rendition in French of his fairy tale, The Happy Prince. Wisely, Everett only hints that this might be in exchange for certain services rendered.
The film chronicles Wilde’s faltering relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas (Colin Morgan), his beloved ‘Bosie’, whose father, the vindictive Marquess of Queensberry, had activated his downfall.
But Bosie is himself shown as shallow, selfish, feckless. Far more loyal are his friends Reggie Turner (Colin Firth) and in particular Robbie Ross (Edwin Thomas), although Wilde is far too self-absorbed to value their devotion.
There are some memorable scenes, including one in a Parisian absinthe bar where Wilde drunkenly entertains the regulars in a desperate echo of the days when he held Victorian society in his thrall. Occasional flashbacks whisk us back to those heady days, but Everett does not overdo them.
He is far more concerned with Wilde’s decline, and his persecution. Another striking scene follows what might now be called a homophobic pursuit through the Dieppe after a band of young Englishmen on holiday have recognised him.
A terrific supporting cast also includes Emily Watson (as Wilde’s long-suffering wife Constance), Tom Wilkinson and Beatrice Dalle. But, really, this is a oneman show.