The Picture of Dorian Gray

I saw this on opening night at the Miami Gay Film Fest and I, along with about 98% of the audience, hated it. Everyone left hissing and didn't bother to stay for the Q&A with director Duncan Roy, who was just as pretentious on stage as his film was on screen. The film itself is clumsy, underwritten, and lazy, supposedly taking place in the 80s and 90s but clearly the budget was too small to hide the fact the backdrop is obviously 2005 New York. The acting was bad and the placing of dialogue as text in huge letters on the screen is about as film-school- amateur-ostentatious as you can get. Also the film was obviously trying to say something about the AIDS crisis among gay men but failed to register any conclusive facts or interesting ideas. As it is, this Picture of Dorian Gray is a sluggish piece if crap that will have a hard time getting theatrical release. Most likely, the film will go directly to HERE or LOGO or DVD where it will fade into bad movie obscurity.

At the Outfest screening in July 2007, the director told us "If you haven't read the book, this picture will make no sense. For those of you who have read the book, I sincerely apologize." He also said "This is a difficult film." We thought he meant difficult to make, but after seeing it we realize he meant difficult to watch. He said his intent was to remake "The Picture of Dorian Gray" with the gay undertone highlighted. For whatever reason, he chose to throw out conventional film narrative style and make an experimental film. The result is dream-like, confusing, and disjoint. It's a hard film to make sense of, even if one knows the story well. If you aren't already familiar with the story, you'll have no idea what is going on.

The film does succeed in making explicit the gay subtext of the story and previous adaptations, but don't expect a conventional film.

I saw this movie at a film festival in Cardiff and i have to say that i really enjoyed it. Duncan Roy has done an amazing job of updating the novel to present day while remaining true to Wildes story. David Gallagher is great as Dorian. He is suitably pretty and wide-eyed as the more innocent Dorian at the the beginning of the movie but is even better as the dangerous and crazed Dorian that he evolves in to towards the end. Chistian Camargo (from TV's Dexter) gives a stand-out performance as Henry Wotton. Probably one of the best Henry's i have ever seen. While some actors of the past have had trouble making Wildes lines flow naturally, Camargo delivers the lines with ease. Rebecca Wisocky as Henrys wife also steals the odd scene. And Noah Segan gave a heart-felt performance as a love-lorn Basil Hallward. The movie had a cool and edgy look. Everything from the clothes to the make-up to the sett pieces were a great mix of the very modern meeting the very classic. Giving the movie a sort of timeless feel. All together i had a great cinema experience watching this movie and i would recommend it to everyone.

Just saw this picture at Outfest and I absolutely loved it. Don't have a clue what the folks here are talking about. But as they say an opinion is like an ass, everybody has one and there are too many pretentious ones here who believe to be the worlds film critics. The film was eloquent,lyrical, poetic and very artistic. I saw and loved Duncan's previous work AKA and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have seen several versions of Dorian Gray and found this one to be original, entertaining and disturbing. I applaud the filmmaker for his innovative choices and I know, not hope, that this film will get distribution and released in theatres for I happen to work for a film distribution company, so most other distributors would be doing us a favor if they choose to go with the other negative comments here. I'd be more than happy to bring this version of Dorian Grey to screens. I look forward to Duncan's future great works.

I really liked it although it's not going to please the multiplex crowd. David Gallagher is stunningly good as Dorian in this updated version of Oscar Wilde's tale of decadence and debauchery. The authentic whiff of contemporary corruption and depravity of the New York art world is chilling. Perhaps some of the other reviewers aren't that familiar with Wilde's text but I think Duncan Roy has created something that has the authentic spirit of the 1890s.Wilde's witticisms and jibes at morality sit very well in a contemporary setting.

I was also in the same screening and the audience warmly applauded at the end.

This is a relatively low budget production but it looks like great. I loved the fact that the portrait is a video installation too.