I've watched this a number of times over the past few months on a satellite TV movie channel.
It is charming, but Wilde fans will know how destructive he thought charm was.
It purports to be factional, but it avoids many ugly truths about Wilde's life. That's not surprising in a politically correct world where gayness is held to be almost superior to heterosexuality.
Today, Wilde would probably be even less tolerated than he was in those Victorian days. In 'intolerant' times, even until quite recently - the Fifties and Sixties - people turned a blind eye to all sorts of things as long as you kept it under wraps.
Remember, in this movie, he was not hounded for his activities. The hotel staff knew what was going on, and the male brothels were not raided. He brought the court case, and his 'persecution', upon himself.
Today, Wilde might be considered a paedophile. The film shows the rent boys as grown up men in suits and ties, when in reality the boys that he and Lord Alfred Douglas exploited with money were as young as 14.
The sordidness of the evidence in court (faecal stains on hotel bedsheets) is absent in this sunnily-photographed movie. As is the fact that Wilde was syphilitic because of his adventures - not very pleasant for his wife.
And this was, I'm sure, the true reason for the cessation of their marital sex life.
If the film had been historically accurate, Fry would have been shown with black teeth in later life - this was a side effect of the mercury treatment at the time for syphilis.
Not very charming.
The movie also ignores the main reason for Wilde's obsession with Bosie. Like many middle class people of the time who were successful in the public arena, he craved the approval of the aristocracy. He was a snob in the true sense of the word, and sucking up (pun intended) to the upper classes and the presumption that they are better beings comes out in his work as well as his life.
On the plus side, I thought Tom Wilkinson's performance as the Marquis of Queensbury was brilliant and very true to how a tough old Victorian aristocrat would have behaved.
A much better portrayal than earlier ones which dismissed him merely as mad.
It is charming, but Wilde fans will know how destructive he thought charm was.
It purports to be factional, but it avoids many ugly truths about Wilde's life. That's not surprising in a politically correct world where gayness is held to be almost superior to heterosexuality.
Today, Wilde would probably be even less tolerated than he was in those Victorian days. In 'intolerant' times, even until quite recently - the Fifties and Sixties - people turned a blind eye to all sorts of things as long as you kept it under wraps.
Remember, in this movie, he was not hounded for his activities. The hotel staff knew what was going on, and the male brothels were not raided. He brought the court case, and his 'persecution', upon himself.
Today, Wilde might be considered a paedophile. The film shows the rent boys as grown up men in suits and ties, when in reality the boys that he and Lord Alfred Douglas exploited with money were as young as 14.
The sordidness of the evidence in court (faecal stains on hotel bedsheets) is absent in this sunnily-photographed movie. As is the fact that Wilde was syphilitic because of his adventures - not very pleasant for his wife.
And this was, I'm sure, the true reason for the cessation of their marital sex life.
If the film had been historically accurate, Fry would have been shown with black teeth in later life - this was a side effect of the mercury treatment at the time for syphilis.
Not very charming.
The movie also ignores the main reason for Wilde's obsession with Bosie. Like many middle class people of the time who were successful in the public arena, he craved the approval of the aristocracy. He was a snob in the true sense of the word, and sucking up (pun intended) to the upper classes and the presumption that they are better beings comes out in his work as well as his life.
On the plus side, I thought Tom Wilkinson's performance as the Marquis of Queensbury was brilliant and very true to how a tough old Victorian aristocrat would have behaved.
A much better portrayal than earlier ones which dismissed him merely as mad.