It's faithful enough to the novel without being boring, and it's surprisingly sharp-witted, considering the overall feel of it. It manages to make Wilde's wordy prose and dialogue feel natural enough - George Sanders is particularly terrific as basically Wilde himself - and this means it keeps the themes and message of the novel without adapting it word-for-word. In that case, it's a relatively impressive adaptation.
Still, there's not a lot to it. The lead's stone-faced performance is either brilliant or terrible, depending on how you want to look at it, and the portrait itself isn't showcased enough (though its horrible unveiling, in full Technicolour, is one of the film's highlights). The whole thing looks beautiful enough, but there's not a lot of horror to it. None of it is scary or frightening. There's no passion to it. It's a very dry film.
I'd say the positives outweigh the negatives, as it's enjoyable and entertaining enough, but there's a lot here that could be done better. A full-throttled remake could be something really special. Unfortunately, all we've got is a bunch of half-baked, BBC stuff and some low-budget stuff that never sees the light of day. Shame.
Still, there's not a lot to it. The lead's stone-faced performance is either brilliant or terrible, depending on how you want to look at it, and the portrait itself isn't showcased enough (though its horrible unveiling, in full Technicolour, is one of the film's highlights). The whole thing looks beautiful enough, but there's not a lot of horror to it. None of it is scary or frightening. There's no passion to it. It's a very dry film.
I'd say the positives outweigh the negatives, as it's enjoyable and entertaining enough, but there's a lot here that could be done better. A full-throttled remake could be something really special. Unfortunately, all we've got is a bunch of half-baked, BBC stuff and some low-budget stuff that never sees the light of day. Shame.
