{"id":2852,"date":"2018-01-21T18:30:20","date_gmt":"2018-01-21T18:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commarts.pleather.us\/2018\/01\/21\/the-happy-prince-review-oscar-wilde-is-a-depressed-loner-in-rupert-everetts-humorless-biopic-sundance-2018\/"},"modified":"2018-01-21T18:30:20","modified_gmt":"2018-01-21T18:30:20","slug":"the-happy-prince-review-oscar-wilde-is-a-depressed-loner-in-rupert-everetts-humorless-biopic-sundance-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/2018\/01\/21\/the-happy-prince-review-oscar-wilde-is-a-depressed-loner-in-rupert-everetts-humorless-biopic-sundance-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Happy Prince\u2019 Review: Oscar Wilde Is a Depressed Loner in Rupert Everett\u2019s Humorless Biopic \u2014 Sundance 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Most people know Oscar Wilde as the preeminent source of British wit, a high-society raconteur whose plays and novels epitomize what it means to be the life of the party. That characterization recedes to the shadows in \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/t\/the-happy-prince\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-happy-prince\">The Happy Prince<\/a>,\u201d in which <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/t\/rupert-everett\/\" id=\"auto-tag_rupert-everett\">Rupert Everett<\/a> directs and stars as the flamboyant literary giant at the end of his life. Anyone expecting Wildean banter will be sorely disappointed \u2014 think more of an autobiographical spin on &#8220;The Portrait of Dorian Gray&#8221; than &#8220;The Importance of Being Earnest&#8221; \u2014 but it&#8217;s Everett\u2019s formidable investment in the role that rescues the movie from being a total letdown. Nevertheless, \u201cThe Happy Prince\u201d largely amounts to a bland rumination on Wilde\u2019s lesser-known decline.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pmc-related-link read-more\">\n\t\t\t<strong class=\"pmc-related-type\">Read More:<\/strong><a target=\"_self\" href=\"http:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/2018\/01\/sundance-2018-reviews-interviews-news-1201918633\/\" title=\"The 2018 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival\">The 2018 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"p1\">The drama mostly takes place in 1867, shortly after Wilde was released from prison for \u201cindecency with men.\u201d Exiled to France, he roams about town with Falstaffian prowess, even as he\u2019s clearly a sad shell of his former self. Everett, who played a variation of this character onstage more than once with \u201cJudas Kiss,\u201d transforms Wilde into an absinthe-guzzling mess who wanders through back alleys and claustrophobic cabarets. At one establishment, he holds court with a rapt audience while singing an old show tune, then face-plants in a drunken heap, yielding an injury that leaves him bedridden. So far, so intriguing \u2014 but \u201cThe Happy Prince\u201d settles into a glacial character study more content to linger in its pity party than provide deeper insights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">From there, the timeline shifts, exploring the immediate aftermath of Wilde\u2019s release from prison with occasional flashbacks to happier times. Back in England, his estranged wife Constance (Emily Watson, her face frozen in disapproval) continues to support Wilde from afar. In lieu of her company, he\u2019s joined by longtime lover Lord Alfred Bosie Douglas (Colin Morgan, in a heartfelt turn), literary agent Robbie Ross (Edwin Thomas), and longtime pal Reggie Turner (Colin Firth, wearing an awkward mustache). This trio forms a cogent support system as Wilde repeatedly moans about his lost opportunities, writer\u2019s block, and the occasional spiritual insight. (\u201cI am my own Judas,\u201d he says, contemplating the discovery of faith during his jail time.) Set across beaches and lonely caf\u00e9s, the movie foregrounds Wilde\u2019s insights about his faded stardom and disdain for the culture that exiled him. \u201cThe natural habitat of the hypocrite is England,\u201d he sighs, recalling a world that embraced his exuberance before rejecting it for good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There\u2019s plenty to appreciate in Wilde\u2019s struggle, thanks in large part to Everett\u2019s investment in the role, but he falls short of giving the surrounding movie the same elevated intensity. Unfolding in the format of a melodrama, \u201cThe Happy Prince\u201d suffers from murky lighting schemes and peculiar transitions, suggesting that Everett\u2019s first time as a director found him uncertain how to apply his theatrical instincts to a different medium. The result is more \u201cMasterpiece Theater\u201d than movie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Beyond that, \u201cThe Happy Prince\u201d takes Wilde\u2019s stature for granted, and makes hardly any reference to his best-known works. Instead, they hover around him with a phantom-like air, requiring audiences to do the extra legwork. Onstage, it\u2019s easy to see how the melancholy air might resonate without additional context. Here, the movie falls into a grating pattern of men chatting in somber tones about old times. Diehard Wilde fans will find some intriguing observations lurking in this snapshot of the writer\u2019s final moments \u2014 his capacity as orator, wonderfully realized by Everett, explains much about his prose \u2014 but redundancy sets in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Of course, that\u2019s the whole point: \u201cThe Happy Prince\u201d is about a man trapped in limbo between the world behind him and new possibilities he can never realize. \u201cWe are lost in our own world,\u201d he says, an astute observation for this pioneering figure of gay culture who was forced to hover on the outskirts of Victorian ideals. He\u2019s a strikingly tragic creature, but \u201cThe Happy Prince\u201d struggles to say much more about that conundrum, leaving one to contemplate the potential had Wilde emerged from retirement to fill in the blanks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Grade: C+<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>\u201cThe Happy Prince\u201d premiered in the Premieres section at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiewire.com\/t\/sundance\/\" id=\"auto-tag_sundance\">Sundance<\/a> Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.<\/i><\/p>\n<aside class=\"pmc-related-link sign-up\">\n\t\t\t<strong class=\"pmc-related-type\">Sign Up:<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/indiewire.com\/email\" title=\"Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.\">Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Source: IndieWire film<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most people know Oscar Wilde as the preeminent source of British wit, a high-society raconteur whose plays and novels epitomize what&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-2852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-careering"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paqOTj-K0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}