Tightrope walker

I haven't written a film review for a long time. It's not because I didn't watch the movie, but because I was too busy, so after watching it, I silently evaluated and turned over. It's a pity for the elegant quality of "District Nine" and "The Smart Man"; also a pity for the extraordinary fun brought by several old horror films-"Evil Dead Trilogy", "American Werewolf in New York"; there are also quite a few For the disappointed "Rabe's Diary" and the sighing "Eavesdropping". Now I finally caught the time, but just happened to encounter the release of "Portrait of Dorian Gray". So this article has a bit of misunderstanding, purely "the one who catches it is whoever is". I said "but it is" for this film because he was neither in my high-anticipated work, nor did it make waves in public opinion. Although he didn't enter the theater with gorgeous expectations, he still shook his head in disappointment when he left. The director's intention is very obvious, but it is nothing more than that. I haven't read Wilde's original novel, but I have read the description of the plot on the Internet. On the whole, the film follows the context of the original novel, but has a completely new construction in structure and motivation. The biggest change is when Dorian Gray started to wake up? Dorian Gray made a contract with the devil to let oil painting replace him to grow old, but oil painting not only became his physical substitute, but also the manifestation of his own soul. So after witnessing the horrible face of the oil painting, Dorian Gray decided to follow suit. In the novel, Dorian Gray did not really realize at the beginning what is true "conscientiousness". He made a series of "good deeds", but he did not change the oil painting back. This is because his benevolence is not from the heart, but just another shameful deception of his ugly soul. But in the film, he suddenly woke up after a long journey of decades and began to really fall in love with Henry's daughter. Such a change, if it is used as a reconstruction of the story, is not a must. But the problem is that the film never explained exactly what prompted him to change. The only clue is the repeated mention of Dorian's first love-and the only true love in his life. But if this is the case, then deliberately letting Dorian leave for the trip would be tasteless-because it shows that the trip itself is not an inducement to change his mind. Moreover, it is almost a shame to take "decades later", making the magic of the movie disappear. Because things that are abstract and concrete are the strengths of literary works, what movies have is the magic of turning abstraction into concreteness. The inability to show Dorian's vicissitudes through visual language is a major failure of the film, which also makes his personality changes lack convincing emotional and logical foundations. This also bankrupted the director's entertaining intentions. The film obviously hopes to be more contemporary and entertaining than the original, and the director spared no effort to increase the fantasy and even the suspenseful atmosphere of the film. But the magic of this story comes from Dorian's traits of being immortal and immortal. If you want to increase entertainment, you should make a big fuss in this area and describe it in a creative way. But at this point, the director showed his amazing lack of imagination. There is no more description in the film except for the automatic recovery from the wound of the arm being pierced by glass. Looking back on the films of the past few years, there is no shortage of films describing characters with self-healing superpowers-the most famous is Wolverine in "X-Men". And a more interesting comparison is Stephen Norrington's "failure" "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen": Because in this fantasy adventure film based on Alan Moore comics, Dorian Gray played by Stewart Townsend appears. This comic version of Dorian Gray is greatly exaggerated as immortal, and he is surprisingly old. Although this may be too comical, he did consolidate the entertainment of this fictional character and brought curious chemistry with it. On the other hand, "Portrait of Dorian Gray", its description of the powerful power of the devil's contract is far from enough, so this "degenerate version of Faust" story lacks a tense and amazing magic weapon. Dorian Gray in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Although you can’t compare this movie with "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (because they are really different types of films), you can compare Ben Barnes, who plays Dorian Gray, and "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," Stewart Townsend put it together to evaluate. To be fair, Ben Barnes worked very hard in the film. But he was born lacking a dark and evil temperament. Although he tries to be cynical, he always makes people feel unattractive and clumsy. On the other hand, Townsend’s performance is relaxed, confident, and fits (at least in the comics version) the complex personality of the characters-people love (external), people hate (soul). This reminds me of another beautiful man, Orlando Bloom: he is like Barnes as a handsome guy who lacks depravity. Therefore, in "Pirates of the Caribbean", Bloom was unable to fit the little blacksmith into the weird and degenerate group consisting of Depp, Rush and Ney, which became a strange discordant note. Also in "Kings of the Heavens", his completely positive image cannot make Belian's self-willing and desperate performance at the beginning of the story convincing, and only after becoming a "perfect knight" can he finally drive the emotions of the viewers. . Barnes was more qualified in the first half of the film: facing the tension of his lover for the first time; facing the excitement and shyness of London's colorful world; and deeply trapped in Henry's philosophy of life. But when his character was about to surpass all other characters, he was shy. In the end, he should have the upper hand, but he is still the same as when he first came to London, making the influence of the immortal body on the character's psychology disappear without a trace. Although the film is about Dorian's contract with the devil, there is no such thing as "devil". However, Henry played by Colin Firth is the "spokesperson" of the devil. The nihilistic outlook on life he pursues strongly influences Dorian's choice. Colin Firth is the only highlight of the performance in this film. He regards himself as a battle-tested playboy, and his pride in Dorian's worldview is just right. He is the soul figure who dominates the whole story, and his evil is more than Dorian himself. However, although the film does not hesitate to describe how he lured Dorian, it does not clearly explain his motives for doing so. Due to the arrangement of the screenwriter and Feith's strong aura, this character has become a complete villain. As a result, this makes the character's logic appear to be flawed: because if Dorian's fall is Henry's intentional, then Henry obviously lacks strong motives. Moreover, Henry was too lack of the ability to fight back "after the fact", so he could only watch his daughter fall into the "fire pit". Although it seems that he is still the final victor, it is still unclear "what did he get with so much effort?". That's it, I witnessed the failed cinematicization of this gothic thriller in a cinema with few visitors. Although every intention of the film is very explicit, it has not been able to integrate a breathless whole. His vain attempt to make tricks between literary and entertaining made him finally fall into a self-embarrassed dilemma.

View more about Dorian Gray reviews