User reviews

"The Happy Prince" is an interesting, sad look at the great poet and playwright Oscar Wilde at the end of his life, when he lived in poverty, declined health and social exile in France. The film seems like a labor of love for Rupert Everett, its star and director, but the finished product looks a bit low-budget and claustrophobic. The shaky camera work was distracting at times. Anyone who loves Wilde will appreciate this film's sensitive exploration of his inner thoughts and emotions, and how he suffered after his trial, incarceration and social exclusion for his sexual relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas at a time when sex between two men was illegal in England. Although Wilde is shown here living freely in France, he is separated from his two children and his career has been destroyed, so Everett delves into these painful aspects of the writer's later life, partially through dreamily lit flashbacks. "The Happy Prince" is a touching, rather slow film for Wilde fans, but I prefer Stephen Fry's crackling portrayal in Brian Gilbert's "Wilde" (1997), and that earlier film is better overall, perhaps due to superior direction and production quality.

A solid biopic about Oscar Wilde with a terrific Rupert Everett in the leading role. A great transformation not only physically but also his whole mechanisms as an actor are totally redefined. I would not be surprised if his performance as legendary poet and playwright Oscar Wilde will actually get him Oscar attention next year. Its definitely a performance they soak up and adore. The film itself was fine, but nothing to write home about. I had some troubles with Rupert Everett's direction actually. It could have been better set up and the narrative was a bit weird at times. Performance wise it was not only because of Everett's undoubtedly great performance good. Emily Watson shines as his estranged wife but I had hoped she would have more screen time as she really lived that character and although the screen time was limited she really shined in all of her scenes. Colin Firth was good as well and took care about some comedic relief in a at times too dry biopic. The score was good and the cinematography fine - offering a lot of beautiful sceneries. Definitely worth to check out for the performance and if you are a fan of Wilde himself as they depict him and his work and language just well.

Sorry to dampen your spirits. I wanted to like this film a lot but it fails to excite. Fails to ignite and in the end feels like a muddled wet blanket excuse for a movie making experience. Hey, the scenery, the camera work and attention to detail is great. Very evocative. The actual story and editing is less so. It strikes me as the type of film a real enthusiast for Oscar Wilde would make as a homage to the man and then struggle through heaps of revisions and funding cuts and criticism from various studios to get it made and then at the end - prove that the critics were right. It's not very good because the writer's vision splendid didn't really cut through or know what it sought to portray except to say - "I love Oscar Wilde!" Because in the end, we as passive viewers don't really care about Oscar at all. Towards the end of the film, I turned to my wife and whispered to her that this film despite its best impulses, actually damns Oscar Wilde as a self indulgent narcissist. A prat by sheer accident. I don't think that was the intention of the film-makers! She agreed. No real insight to the creative spirit of the man and she lost interest and went to bed. The trailer looked terrific but the movie despite it's best endeavours to immortalise the man - actually makes you lose all sympathy for him and strangely you feel unmoved by his predicament at the end.

"And all men kill the thing they love/ By all let this be heard/ Some do it with a bitter look/ Some with a flattering word/ The coward does it with a kiss/The brave man with a sword!" Oscar Wilde (Rupert Everett)

Because I am a devoted fan of Oscar Wilde, I had to open this review of The Happy Prince with his famous final stanza from The Ballad of Reading Gaol. It's his wisdom for those foolishly thinking love is always benign, and it signals Wilde's own ironic awareness of his complicity in landing for two deadly years in Reading for gross indecency (homosexuality).

The stanza also may allude to the disaster he brought the many he loved, male and female. As his first and final love, Robbie Ross (Edwin Thomas), declares, "He'll eat you."

The Happy Prince tells of Wilde's last days after his tragic imprisonment; he is subject to taunts even from Parisians, so famous was he round the world. An "exiled fairy" he called himself. Because homosexuality was outlawed in England, it is especially ironic that the once most famous author of the 1890's should be vilified with universal shame.

In 2017 he and other convicted sodomites were pardoned, small comfort to those of us who believe he could have had more greatness like The Importance of Being Earnest and The Ideal Husband to come.

This film carefully chronicles Wilde's self-destructive self-indulgence, living high when he didn't have the funds and returning to the arms of Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas (Colin Morgan), the beautiful young man he loved, whose love cost Wilde the years in jail and everything else. Wilde himself says, "I am my own Judas."

The recurring theme song, "The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery," resonates with the joy and sorrow he brings to himself. Empathetic director-actor Everett also suffered professionally when he came out at the age of 25. This film, however, should bring him universal acclaim.

That story of Wilde's life is available on film and in biography, but Everett has given us the final period not dramatically and universally enjoyed until now with a fine performance he sharpened from many years playing the doomed wit on stage, set here in Paris, Normandy, and Naples, and set production in Bavaria and Belgium.

This Wilde is disconsolate, weary, and dissolute with not enough of his witticisms and epigrams to my liking. In fact, as seemingly realistic as it is, it is perhaps too gloomy for a general audience. But for literature and art house lovers, it's nectar.

Somewhere in the middle of the film, Wilde says his most famous final words: "I am dying beyond my means. I can't even afford to die. This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go." Wilde is arguably the most quoted author after Shakespeare, and these words show how even death by meningitis can't stop his wit.

BTW: Research his countless epigrams-you'll spend an afternoon in bliss. These are three samples:

"I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability."

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his."

Dorothy Parker gives the ultimate praise:

"If, with the literate, I am Impelled to try an epigram, I never seek to take the credit; We all assume that Oscar said it."

All credit to Rupert Everett for bringing to life his story of Wilde's final years following his exile from England after his release from prison.

The film is never less than interesting and often fascinates but it suffers because Everett cannot fully live up to his decision to play the lead, write the script and helm the picture. He's best when acting but even this falters in some scenes with Bosie that are distinctly undercooked. The script in parts needed a tighter edit and there's only so much reflected light in the camera that you can put down to cinematic meaning making and artistic licence. Sorry Rupert - just too little butter over too much bread I'm afraid.

However, the film is never less than distracting and Everett successfully makes Wilde the man that he was: At once irritating, outrageous but always to be loved. His performance of Wilde incited many emotions in me but I always returned to compassion.

Worth a look!

Rupert Everett fulfils a long-held ambition here to make a film about the last days of Oscar Wilde, and in the title role he is simply terrific - he is never off the screen. To write it and direct it as well, however, is to take on too much; indeed the need for an objective view is often apparent when it comes to narrative and structure. The film starts slowly (with a dreadful cardboard cut-out of London by night that could have taken from Olivier's wartime Henry V) and it's some time before the flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks) begin. Supporting performances, especially from Colin Morgan as Bosie and Emily Watson (under-used) as Constance, are excellent and the photography,(particularly in the Italian sequences) beautiful, though I found the half-shadows of the faces in the candlelight rather tiresome. I must add that, for someone who is penniless and constantly on the run, Wilde does possess a large wardrobe. There is more humour than one might expect (I won't spoil your enjoyment by quoting any of the jokes but I found the sequence where the priest (Tom Wilkinson) comes to give Wilde the extreme unction especially hilarious). Great attention is paid to the soundtrack, but why the use of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony at the end? All in all a fine effort, but I did leave the cinema strangely unmoved.

This is a considerable personal achievement for Rupert Everett who scripted, directed and starred in this film of Oscar Wild's little known final years. The story is always interesting and the direction has moments of genius however it is Everett's wonderful performance that lifts this film above the ordinary. This is a part that he seems to have been born to play and he captures all the pain and regret leading up to Wild's death.Excellent support from Firth,Morgan and especially Edwin Thomas. The best scenes and essence of the story are captured when Everett is singing 'The boy I love is up in the gallery' in a Paris music hall and when he tells the story of the 'Happy Prince'... you can physically feel the pain of a wasted and lost talent.

I feel it only fair to compare this film to the earlier production 'Wilde' starring Stephen Fry. Frankly Stephen did a far superior job. Rupert not only wrote and performed in this one, but he also directed it and as such it came across as a self indulgent film made for him only and not so much for the audience. There is also something smarmy about him that makes it seem vulgar when held up against Mr. Fry's Oscar.

It was quite crudely made and I don't mean the sexy bits, because everyone knows I enjoy those. If anything you didn't see enough for my tastes, but I mean crude in the way of its rough and unpolished finish. I think that done with a more subjective eye, a better budget and locations, sets, etc, the final days of Oscar could be delivered as a masterpiece of the screen. He is a well renowned figure and his death must surely be as interesting as his works and his "Scandalous" life, but Rupert really missed the mark here.

I felt the timeline was all over the place and I did get a bit lost a couple of times. Flashbacks are fine, but it needs to be clear that we are seeing them or have been seeing them for it to work. They were also not the fantastic instances in Mr Wilde's life that we would all crave to see, but a mere recent history before his passing.

No one stands out as a particularly outstanding performer here, but I did like Edwin Thomas as Robbie Ross and not just because he is cute.

Quite simply it does not have the charm and appeal of 'Wilde' and it is very dark in its way, perhaps that was deliberate to show the decline in his fortunes, but it just made it all feel dreary to me.

Rupert Everett was born to play Oscar Wilde, at least the older Wilde, (Everett is now 59). I'd already seen him play Wilde on stage, magnificently, in David Hare's "The Judas Kiss"; now he has written and directed the film "The Happy Prince" which deals in large part, (it's mostly told in flashback), with the period after his release from Reading Gaol. He, of course, takes on the role of Wilde once again and gives the kind of performance that should get him an Oscar of a different kind.

This is no vanity project but one full of passion and love of his subject. He gives us an Oscar that is vain, glorious and in the throes of the most terrible pain; this is an Oscar warts and all. He dominates every frame of the picture but has also assembled a superb supporting cast. Both Colin Morgan as Bosie and Edwin Thomas as Robbie Ross are splendid but so too are Emily Watson as Constance, Colin Firth as Reggie Turner, John Standing as his doctor and Tom Wilkinson as the priest who gives him the last rites. These may amount to nothing more than cameos but what glorious cameos they are. This is an actor's piece and no mistake.

However, for a work that is primarily literary and for a first-time director Everett also displays a very keen visual eye. This is a handsome period piece but far from a stuffy one. Everett manages to capture the flavour of Oscar's rise and fall beautifully. Here is a film that is heartbreakingly sad and strangely uplifting at the same time, a real testament to Wilde's genius, (it's certainly the best Wilde movie to date), and one of the best LGBT-themed films of recent times. Unmissable.

This Oscar Wilde movie - written, directed, and starring Rupert Everett - turned out to be a vacuous vanity production, with no chronology, and no idea, no attempt even, to examine or describe Oscar. This was a portrait of a fairly good actor who should never be allowed to direct, and one who has no narrative sense of the writer's art. Fortunately there were good actors in the background, such as a scene stealing Tom Wilkinson. Colin Firth, Anna Chancellor and Emily Watson provide lessons in how to act to Rupert, which sounds unkind, but this is because the film dwells on Everett narcissistically. It's failure is entirely down to him. It is not a film about the genius it set out to explore. It's all about Rupert dressing up.

This was an absorbing tale largely because I hadn't a clue about Wilde's last days. The acting was excellent, each actor delivering a completely believable naturalistic turn. Despite the great support acting if the lead, Rupert Everett ( almost unrecognisable) hadn't been so completely absorbing it could have been dire. He was remarkable, managing the multiple tones and moods Wilde goes through. A tale of sadness and joy and redemption. Such an interesting movie.

Little to add to all the other reviews. Everett as Wilde, and all the cast around him, are uniformly fine, the sets and photography and music all work well too. The film is depressing because you know it is leading to a sad end - isn't all of life? Anyway, that said, though it holds few surprises, it is an honest attempt to show the downward spiral of a man partly exiled by a hypocritical society, and partly by his own contradictions (and self-destructive passion for a scorpion of a man). Perhaps a little less wallowing in the mud, and a little more time spent on the other characters, would have shed more light on what drove Wilde to betray himself and those who really loved him for a young male tramp.

If you are an admirer of Rupert Everett, you must see this film. if you are one of admirers of Oscar Wilde , you must see this film. I admit, I am both. Oscar Wilde was one of familiar names across my childhood for his tales. at first moment, I saw the title of film and the suggestion than it represents an adaptation of the tale with same title was the first temptation. Rupert Everett was a discover from the "90 's . and one who I admire role by role. so, ambiguous expectations , tensioned in part. from the actor. but, more, from the director. and "The Happy Prince" was the perfect answer to each of expectations. I saw it with not real comfortable feelings. because the adaptations of Oscar Wilde life are many and, for me,Stephen Fry was the ideal Oscar Wilde. I discovered the film after I was read the last lines of Peter Ackroyd "The last testament of Oscar Wilde". and I discovered seeng the film not only the images of book, but the subtle and precise and seductive force of Rupert Everett talent, not exactly a revelation but a clear win in a not comfortable battle. I discovered the traits of Constance Hollande in the fine and nuanced and wise performance of Emily Watson. and a Bossie who give to me confirmation about the art of Colin Morgan. after its end, an only thought - the director could be better. the lead actor did an admirable work. and the cinematography is real great. so, "The Happy Prince".

The story is a challenging one to tell, and although all concerned make a valiant attempt to capture the genius and tragedy of the man, somehow the end result is not entirely convincing. At times, a little over dramatic and cliched; and excessively focused on Wild's sexuality. At the end of the film one feels one knows more about Wilde, but does not know him better.

Oscar Wilde - you may have heard the name, you may even know what he did for a living, but did you know what he was like privately? I can only speak for myself: I didn't. I had no idea he was homosexual. That does not take anything away from his work and all the things he wrote. It was hard to sustain or even survive with that sexual preference though, at the time he lived.

Even today there is still a lot of hate against people who identify as gay. Mostly disguised as religious believe, people get a lot of hate. It is more than a shame we have not overcome these things and seem still not able to just let people live their lifes the way it makes them happy. Now go back over a century. As I said, I had no idea about his sexual preference, so I didn't know what this would be about and I also cannot attest if the movie depicts things as close to the truth as they happened. But the story is quite engaging and the actors do the rest. If you are not easily offended by what this movie is about, it is quite decently told

The sets, actors are superb. This film reveals the obvious degenerate and selfish behavior of Wilde in his pursuit of his sexual preferences, to the emotional abuse toward his wife, whom he married for money, and as an appearance of propriety. It is likely that he contracted syphilis due to his irresponsible behavior, and passed it to his wife. Online articles dispute this, but both his and her symptoms point to latter stage syphilis. In the end, he comes off as a selfish cad, unable to discern good from bad, love from lust. 4 stars for the acting and set designs.

"I'm dying beyond my means" Rupert Everett wrote, directed and stars in this visit to the life and fame of Oscar Wilde. Though the film has strong moments the manner of relating this view of Wilde's latter days is somewhat jumbled by the preponderance of French dialogue, strange insertions of the story The Happy Prince as related by Wilde, and somewhat clumsy use of flash-forwards and flashbacks that take the focus of the film's message of how Wilde dealt with his sexuality.

The film suggests the untold story of the last days of brilliant writer Oscar Wilde who in the last part of the 19th century succumbed to his sexual proclivities in homophobic England, where homosexuality was punishable by imprisonment, his prison time, and the striving to find his place upon release from prison. As the synopsis states, 'In a cheap Parisian hotel room Oscar Wilde (Rupert Everett) lies on his deathbed. The past floods back, taking him to other times and places. Was he once the most famous man in London? The artist crucified by a society that once worshipped him? Under the microscope of death he reviews the failed attempt to reconcile with his long suffering wife Constance (Emily Watson), the ensuing reprisal of his fatal love affair with Lord Alfred Douglas aka Bosie (Colin Morgan), the warmth and devotion of Robbie Ross (Edwin Thomas), who tried and failed to save him from himself, and constant friend Reggie Turner (Colin Firth). Travelling through Wilde's final act and journeys through England, France and Italy, the transience of lust is laid bare and the true riches of love are revealed. It is a portrait of the dark side of a genius who lived and died for love. A touching moment takes us off guard as Father Dunne (Tom Wilkinson) offers last rites at story's end.'

Rupert Everett is impressive in his complete submersion in the character of Oscar Wilde. The supporting cast is also very strong. There seems to be a disconnect between the concept and aim of the film and its execution: it wanders a bit much but is still full of entertaining and touching moments.

The story of the last couple of years of Oscar Wilde's life, mostly spent incognito in France, mostly penniless but supported by friends and and his former lover.

Everett as Wilde is truly wonderful demonstrating a mixture of the flamboyant artist and the sad lonely individual with little to live for. Supported by a fine cast, this was a passion project for Everett who write and directed this and it shows.

Definitely worth catching up with.

Aging former great writer of plays gets drunk, gets laid and makes a fool of himself in his final days.

The lead character elicits no compassion or sympathy, despite his sickness and in spite of who he is... which would be fine if there was a point to filming this. There's no story to speak of, the flashbacks are too brief to enjoy and there's no interesting distraction from the lead character.

Heavy going would be putting it mildly!