I saw Rupert Everett talking about this film during his Life Stories interview with Piers Morgan, it is his debut as writer and director, I was looking forward to it. Basically, set in 1897, Oscar Wilde (Rupert Everett) has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for gross indecency (homosexuality was illegal at the time). Separated from his wife and children, he arrives in Dieppe, where old friends Reggie Turner (Colin Firth) and Robert "Robbie" Ross (Edwin Thomas) are waiting for him. Wilde assumes the alias of Sebastian Melmoth and tries to rebuild his life. He also wants to make peace with his wife Constance Lloyd (Emily Watson) and writes to her. He is recognised and taunted by some young Englishmen who pursue him into a church. He violently defends himself and receives a severe warning from the police. Oscar reunites with his old lover Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas (Merlin's Colin Morgan), which angers Robbie, whose secret love for him has never been reciprocated. Oscar and Bosie flee together to Naples, where they live for some time in a house in Posillipo. Soon Lady Douglas, Bosie's mother, stops her son his allowance, saying she will resume payments, and give a £200 payoff to Oscar, if the two lovers separate. Despite Oscar's anger, they give in and separate. Shortly afterwards Constance, who had forbidden Oscar any contact with Bosie, dies from complications following surgery, and Oscar is denied any contact with their two children. Now incapable of writing, Oscar goes to Paris, where he lives off his wits and the charity of his old supporters. He is reunited Reggie and Robbie and shortly after finds Bosie, whose has received a large inheritance following the recent death of his father, but Bosie angrily refuses to help him. Meanwhile, Oscar begins to show strange symptoms, including coughing blood, he assumes it is mussel poisoning, but then suspects that it may be syphilis. Oscar shares his misery with two begging brothers he meets, he also tells his fairy tale The Happy Prince, which he always told his children. Oscar's illness gets worse, and he receives a painful surgical operation to treat an abscess (his right ear drum was ruptured in a fall, leading to a collection of pus, swelling and inflammation to cause bacteria) in his ear. His uncertain physical state causes post-operative infections. With his last strength Oscar asks for an extreme Catholic anointing, only to die surrounded by the few friends he has remaining. Oscar passes away from meningitis. At Oscar's funeral, Robbie complains to Bosie that he was a hypocrite, because he mourns the death of the man who had always loved him and whom he had abandoned without showing any gratitude. Bosie says that his words are dictated by jealousy, and that only he will be remembered alongside Oscar Wilde, while Robbie will be forgotten. The epilogue says that Bosie died alone and penniless in 1945, while Robbie died in 1918 and was buried with Oscar. In 2017, Oscar was pardoned together with other people convicted of homosexual offences. Also starring Tom Wilkinson as Father Dunne, Anna Chancellor as Mrs. Arbuthnot, Julian Wadham as Mr. Arbuthnot, Béatrice Dalle as Café Manager, John Standing as Dr. Tucker, and Ronald Pickup as Judge. Everett plays the central role as the fallen playwright, gay martyr and self-destructive cynic, and his writing and direction is reasonably good. It is an interesting portrait of a Victorian icon in his final years, it has flashbacks seeing Wilde's previous glittering success, the subject of horrifying homophobic prejudice is strong, it is obviously a story leading to tragedy, but there are moments of humour to soften it a little, it is a reasonably entertaining biographical drama. Worth watching!
Review of The Happy Prince
