The Happy Prince a Flat Look at a Fallen Star

The Happy Prince (2018)

Directed by Rupert Everett

Lionsgate, 105 minutes, R (nudity, adult situations)

★★

During the 1880s and first half of the 1890s, there was no brighter light in Victorian England than Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854-1900). A brilliant playwright, celebrated novelist, and incisive wit, Wilde was the darling of the English drawing room set, even though he was of Irish stock. Today Wilde is best known for his dark novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and his rollicking theater farce The Importance of Being Earnest, the latter a lampoon of Victorian conventions.

Alas, there was a price to be paid for defying some conventions. Wilde was irreverent, flamboyant, and–though married–attracted to men. He well understood the dangers of being gay, which is why he failed to heed his friends’ advice and sued a nobleman who accused him of being a homosexual. His1895 libel suit, Wilde v. Queensberry, fared badly. The day after the judgment, Wilde was arrested. He was found guilty of sodomy and indecency, and spent two years in London’s dreary Newgate Prison. He left a broken man.

Wilde the bon vivant appears in many movies and plays, but that Wilde is not the subject of the ironically named film The Happy Prince. (The name comes from a collection of Wilde’s children’s stories.) We come in on Wilde (Rupert Everett, who also directed and wrote the screenplay) as he is leaving prison. Loyal friends such as journalist Reggie Turner (Colin Firth) and Robbie Ross (Edwin Thomas), who was one of Wilde’s conquests and in love with Oscar, greet Oscar. Dreams of restoring Oscar to his former glory quickly founder upon the realities that Oscar is broke, he became religious in prison, and he outwardly desires to reconcile with his wife Constance (Emily Watson). In other words, Oscar is only occasionally his old self. Mostly he’s a gloomy lad. To make matters worse, the lover at the center of his 1895 troubles, Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas (Colin Morgan) reappears to tempt Wilde’s resolve. Everyone, it seems, except Oscar sees Bosie as selfish, immature, and vain.  

We follow Oscar Wilde to his final demise in a cheap Paris hotel, where he dies. Everett’s tale is of the struggle between spiritual piety and fleshly desire. This is true not only for Oscar, but also for Robbie whose advice to Oscar to cast Bosie aside is tainted by his own obvious desire for Oscar’s love. Even Father Dunne (Tom Wilkinson) is conflicted. Does one administer last rites to a sodomite whose “confession” rings false?

Perhaps there’s a reason why not many have tackled Wilde’s final years. The Oscar Wilde in The Happy Prince is neither jolly nor regal. As if to emphasize the heaviness of matters, cinematographer John Conroy often bathes his frames in dark Victorian gaslight. In my view, though, Conroy’s choices detract rather than enhance; the film only comes alive visually when the cast leaves England. Although the film features a bevy of talented and respected actors, the tone is often as flat as the lighting. It’s as if the players are trying too hard to achieve gravitas. Everett’s Wilde has the look of Wilde as a puffy faded rose. Again, this has verisimilitude, but it also makes Wilde’s brief forays into wit and gaiety seem contrived rather than convincing.

The Happy Prince won praise on the LGBT film circuit and garnered mostly good reviews from critics who saw it. For the most part, though, both the press and moviegoers ignored it. Ultimately, The Happy Prince is neither droll enough to connect to Wilde’s former genius nor tragic enough for audiences to understand how far from the sun he fell.

Rob Weir