Review by Jake LeMaster
Oscar Wilde's Charecter Dorian Gray brought alive on screen once again by actor Ben Barnes.. This is a story of abuse, peer pressure, sin and when all is said and done human nature. Our lead Dorian seems to be a very innocent, absent minded, easily manipulated young man who inherits his family home after his fathers death. After moving back to London Dorian plays the piano in concert and meets an artist Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin) who finds Dorian to be a beautiful subject for his most recent painting. Dorian wants to be introduced to more people so he and Basil go to a party where Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth) who begins Dorian's seemingly endless quest for debauchery. Lord Henry starts Dorian's fall with a simple cigarette. After meeting the love of his life a local theater actress Sybil Vane (Rachel Hurd-Wood) Lord Henry decided to help Dorian experience life to it's fullest Gin, drugs and women are soon to follow down this path.. As Dorian's heart begins to slowly turn black with the assistance of Henry the change in him causes Sybil to commit suicide... At that point Dorian loses his inhibitions and realizes that the painting Basil had done of him is slowly rotting and aging as he experiences life. Possibly because he has nothing left to live for except for the next good feeling, he continues down this path to ruin willingly easily outdoing Lord Henry who seems to be very proud of himself for ruining the young man. Dorian quickly turns into a monster who's only desires are hiding his secret at all costs and banging anything that moves. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is a tea party where Dorian is looking around the room at all the ladies he had been with showing flashes of him with whores, drinking blood dripping from a woman's breast as she is being tattooed while having sex with him, being beaten senseless by multiple people and seemingly enjoying it, ending with him sitting in front of the painting of himself using drugs.. You really have to watch the film to get the full effect and I'm definitely not telling any more of the story than this it would ruin the ending. My personal Rating I give it about an 8 but that is just my opinion pick it up check it out and see what you think..