There have been three excellent previous screen versions of Wilde's fall from grace, but THE HAPPY PRINCE outshines them all.
Pre- and post-Fall are interwoven. Oscar tells 'The Happy Prince', his dark (Grimm) fairy story, to his children in flashbacks from Paris, where he also tells it to a couple of street kids who have become the children of his exile although the older brother is also his rent-boy. Bloated and dishevelled, the old Oscar still has the appetites which sent him to prison. And he still loves Lord Alfred Douglas, who joins Oscar in a villa in Naples (with more rent-boys) in Naples for a few bickering months. Robbie Ross (Edwin Turner) and Reggie Turner (Colin Firth) are the last London friends who offer loyalty and handouts.
Everett's Wilde is as poignant as Stephen Fry's but even more pitiable as poverty and ill-health overcome him. Colin Morgan gives 'Bosie' his prettiest incarnation since John Fraser in 1960. Emily Watson shines in brief scenes as Oscar's wife Constance, also forced into exile by his disgrace. Tom Wilkinson contributes a vivid cameo as the priest brought to Oscar's hotel deathbed. The famous lines about the wallpaper and 'dying beyond my means' are not forgotten; and Everett has scripted a few one-liners Oscar would happily steal the credit for.
The final scenes almost certainly take liberties with the facts, but they add an operatic grandeur to the 'Last Act'. Rupert Everett's long struggle to realise this project is a splendid homage to the tragedy of the 'comeback' that was Wilde's greatest drama, his greatest tragedy. The movie deserves to be garlanded with awards: an Oscar for Oscar!
Pre- and post-Fall are interwoven. Oscar tells 'The Happy Prince', his dark (Grimm) fairy story, to his children in flashbacks from Paris, where he also tells it to a couple of street kids who have become the children of his exile although the older brother is also his rent-boy. Bloated and dishevelled, the old Oscar still has the appetites which sent him to prison. And he still loves Lord Alfred Douglas, who joins Oscar in a villa in Naples (with more rent-boys) in Naples for a few bickering months. Robbie Ross (Edwin Turner) and Reggie Turner (Colin Firth) are the last London friends who offer loyalty and handouts.
Everett's Wilde is as poignant as Stephen Fry's but even more pitiable as poverty and ill-health overcome him. Colin Morgan gives 'Bosie' his prettiest incarnation since John Fraser in 1960. Emily Watson shines in brief scenes as Oscar's wife Constance, also forced into exile by his disgrace. Tom Wilkinson contributes a vivid cameo as the priest brought to Oscar's hotel deathbed. The famous lines about the wallpaper and 'dying beyond my means' are not forgotten; and Everett has scripted a few one-liners Oscar would happily steal the credit for.
The final scenes almost certainly take liberties with the facts, but they add an operatic grandeur to the 'Last Act'. Rupert Everett's long struggle to realise this project is a splendid homage to the tragedy of the 'comeback' that was Wilde's greatest drama, his greatest tragedy. The movie deserves to be garlanded with awards: an Oscar for Oscar!