It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

realistic. complex. seductive. with a great chance - Stephen Fry in the lead role. not only for the physical resemblance. but for manner to remind an artist in different manner. for few memorable scenes - the speech in America, the family life, the trial and the subtle game between character and its creator. because Oscar Wilde existence remains one of the most inspired reflection of the birth of contemporary style to discover, use and live the life. the film gives inspired explanations about his generosity and about his blindness about social moral, about selfish and about his work, about the manner to assume art as part of hedonism. an admirable job does Jude Law in a role who, for a long period, was ambiguous. and that is one of the great virtues of film - to present a precise portrait not only for a great writer and his existence key moments but for a vision about life who dominates our time.

We yield to no one in our appreciation of Stephen Fry (except maybe for that woman who sings the song on YouTube about having his baby), but this tastefully appointed biopic was a bit of a letdown. Fry as Wilde sails serenely through the opening scenes, wowing a crowd of shirtless miners in Colorado, wedding a beautiful young admirer, then, suddenly squeamish after the birth of their second child, allowing himself to be seduced by another young, male admirer (Michael Sheen, the guy who always plays Tony Blair), trading up to Ioan Gruffud, then to JLaw himself, as Bosie. Fry and Law may have seemed like strong, perhaps inevitable, casting choices, but neither one brings much intensity to his role, and their relationship seems oddly uninvolving—more like tea with a favorite uncle than "feasting with panthers," in Wilde's famous phrase. A few sparks fly when Tom Wilkinson looms up, in a fine nutball turn, as Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queensbury, but the pace slackens again in the crucial courtroom scenes, and we had to resort to Wikipedia to find out why the MoQ thought that Bosie's brother Frank was getting "buggered by that Jew Rosebery" and what Frank's (alleged) suicide had to do with Wilde's disastrous decision to prosecute the marquess for libel. Jennifer Ehle, as the almost-all-forgiving Constance Wilde, Vanessa Redgrave and Zoë Wanamaker don't have much to do besides show up for their costume fittings; Orlando Bloom, who gets one brief scene as a cheeky hustler, looks great in a bowler hat, though I pity the LotR fans who got the DVD from Netflix because they saw his name in the cast list.

In 1997 Stephen Fry was enjoying an unprecedented surge of sympathy and reverence from the British public. Only two years previously he had abandoned a West End play after only three nights and fled abroad. The fuss that his episode created effectively ignited the conscience of the British people who, given the choice of vilifying a performer for acting (apparently) unprofessionally or sympathising with an overburdened national treasure chose the latter.This is an important story in relation to Wilde, released only two years later. Oscar Wilde was a character not only of similar physical attributes, intellect and sexuality as Fry but also with the same standing in relation to society (and specifically London society = the media). However, for all his popularity, Wilde's pecadilloes ultimately brought him public opprobrium and he fell foul of the law. Fry however rediscovered his confidence to assume a more exalted mantle in the estimation of the British public following Cell Mates-gate.This film is Fry riding that public affection - and failing to really return to love, frankly. Wilde is a more of a document than a drama, despite super turns from Jude Law as Bosie Douglas and Jennifer Ehle as Wilde's wife. It's a competent film but it doesn't touch me at all. Most strangely perhaps is that the film fudges an assessment of Wilde's standing in retrospect: neither the document nor the drama come down in judgement either way on the man or the life. Given the personal affection of Fry for Wilde it's all very odd. 4/10

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.