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Dorian Gray (2009)

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42

Average Rating: 4.9/10
Reviews Counted: 36
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 21

Despite a lavish and polished production, Dorian Gray is tame and uninspired with a lifeless performance by Ben Barnes in the title role.

No Score Yet...

Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 1
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 0

Despite a lavish and polished production, Dorian Gray is tame and uninspired with a lifeless performance by Ben Barnes in the title role.

audience

42

liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 42,232

My Rating

Movie Info

A vain London playboy offers his soul in exchange for eternal beauty in this adaptation of the chilling tale by author Oscar Wilde. Seduced into the decadent world of Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth), handsome young aristocrat Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes) becomes obsessed with maintaining his youthful appearance, and commissions a special portrait that will weather the winds of time while he remains forever young. When Gray's obsession spirals out of control, his desperate attempts to safeguard his

R, 1 hr. 52 min.

Drama, Horror

Aug 24, 2010

Alliance Films

Cast

All Critics (36) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (21) | DVD (4)

While Wilde's wit remains firmly entrenched, there's also a gruesome vein of gothic horror, and elements of the original which existed in the subtext or were merely hinted at are brought graphically into the open.

August 24, 2010 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

...a misfire of nigh epic proportions...

February 24, 2011 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews

Like the painting, B-grade horror movie fast loses appeal.

December 31, 2010 Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | Comment
sbs.com.au

A dismal mess.

September 4, 2010 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

click to read full review

March 26, 2010 Full Review Source: Movies for the Masses | Comment
Movies for the Masses

If it was Oscar Wilde who said that experience is the name that everyone gives to their mistakes, then this Dorian Gray is quite an experience!

November 12, 2009 Full Review Source: Screenwize | Comments (3)
Screenwize

This uneasy mixture of horror and elegant wit, which worked so well originally, never really catches fire thanks to Parker's undistinguished handling.

November 11, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | Comment (1)
At the Movies (Australia)

Colin Firth is perfect as the devil's advocate, as this adaptation of 19th century gothic taps into the modern zeitgeist.

November 11, 2009 Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | Comment
FILMINK (Australia)

It's a morality tale told through amorality and the pursuit of pleasures of the flesh

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

There's an edge of psychological horror in director Oliver Parker's third Oscar Wilde story that tells how Ben Barnes' Dorian Gray sells his soul to the devil in return for his youth and beauty

November 6, 2009 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

By leaving nothing up to the imagination, Parker destroys the very essence of the film.

September 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | Comment
Boxoffice Magazine

An impressive character piece that explores important themes ... as well as embellishing aspects of the original story that have never been fleshed out so elaborately.

September 18, 2009 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | Comment
ComingSoon.net

Depravity is better suggested than made explicit when it becomes vulgar, pornographic or comic, and possibly all three.

September 18, 2009 Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | Comment
Observer [UK]

A sturdy piece of heritage horror, as tasteful and handsome as any Brit movie with bustles and frock-coats on its agenda.

September 14, 2009 Full Review Source: SFX Magazine | Comment
SFX Magazine

A very respectful retelling and study of man's inherent quest for self-destruction given the removal of personal ramifications.

September 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Dread Central | Comment

Teenagers will love this film. They will love it because there are lots of close-ups of Barnes being done unto or doing unto others. As a vehicle for a rising and undeniably talented star, it hits the spot.

September 11, 2009 Full Review Source: This is London | Comment (1)
This is London

An ambitious if decidedly uneven interpretation of the last great Gothic horror novel.

September 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

These are interesting ideas, but they would work better if there was more decadence on show earlier on to nail Gray's corruption.

September 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

Wilde survives intact - and with some flair - although the results will do more for sixth-form literature students and their teachers than for film connoisseurs.

September 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Some neat formal flourishes from its director Oliver Parker and a truly handsome supporting turn from Colin Firth, this story demands a more versatile and charismatic central player than the powerfully blank Ben Barnes.

September 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Times [UK] | Comment
Times [UK]
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Dorian Gray

A British aesthete realizes that a painting of him manifests all the physical evidence of anything he does.I'm trying not to be the snobby literature teacher whom everybody hated in high school or that literature survey class you were forced to take Freshman year, but the distortions that Oscar Wilde's masterpiece was

January 7, 2012
hunterjt13
Jim Hunter

Super Reviewer

This film is visually appealing. Colin Firth is a powerhouse in this film along with actors Ben Chaplin, and Rebecca Hall. The special effects visuals and the dressing of sets and costumes are all fantastic. This all said, the film is as if director Oliver Parker read Oscar Wilde's novel and then watched a 24/7 rerun

September 27, 2011
Matthew Roe
Matthew Roe

Super Reviewer

    1. Lord Henry Wooton: I suggest we raise a little hell.
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)
    1. Lord Henry Wooton: 'Conscience.' It's just a polite word for 'cowardice.' No civilized man regrets a pleasure.
    – Submitted by Chris P (9 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (DE)
  • Le Portrait de Dorian Gray (FR)
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