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
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