The Happy Prince

Dir: Rupert Everett

2018

*****

So many passion projects, whether they be made by actors, producers or directors, have become anticlimaxes, driven by obsession and determination that had been clouded by disillusionment and stubbornness over time. There are many example of film makers ignoring the changes that come with time, money woes and the financial worth of their efforts. I’m glad to say Rupert Everett’s passion project, a biopic of Oscar Wilde in his later years, is no such failure. Everett’s decade long project is better than I could have imagined and it is undoubtedly one of the best films of the year. There are few great films were the writer and director also play the leading role and I struggle to think of many greater than The Happy Prince. His performance is spectacular and his script is perfect. It is also unbelievable that this is his first attempt at film direction, an incredible debut. The film is a reflection on Wilde’s life after prison, while alluding to his children’s story The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Everett manages to incorporate all of Wilde’s successes and failures, his pride and shame in later years, while celebrating one of England’s greatest writers. He also addresses classical myths and rights a couple of wrongs along the way. Everett, in perfectly Wilde style, had written promises from his friends Colin Firth and Emily Watson that they would participate in this film if he ever got it made. When Firth became famous and his busy schedule made it unsure if he would be able to keep his promise, Everett still got people to participate by stating that Firth had already signed on. This was such a passion project for Everett that he tried to get the movie made for ten years, all the while rejecting other film roles so that he would remain available if the project was ever green-lit. Firth and Everett previously appeared together in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Everett has previously played Oscar Wilde on stage in a revival of David Hare's 'The Judas Kiss', a play which covers a similar time span to this movie, that ran from September 2012 to April 2013. The film was, as they say, written in the sand. Alan Yentob has actually made a five-years-in-the-making documentary following Everett’s attempts to get his dream project off the ground. I hope it is available to watch soon. I knew very little about Wilde’s later days, only what I remember from Stephen Fry’s Wilde, which I remember wasn’t very much. However, this is no vanity project but one full of passion and love of his subject. This isn’t an Oscar for the sake of an Oscar (although he thoroughly deserves one). Everett gives us a Wilde that is vain, glorious and in the throes of the most terrible pain; this is a Wilde 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 fantastic, so too are Emily Watson as Constance and Firth as Reggie Turner – both staying true to their word and giving it everything they had. John Standing was also good as Wilde’s doctor and Tom Wilkinson, an actor familiar with many Wilde projects, was great 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 definitely an actor's film. It isn’t all about the acting though, as Everett immersed himself in all aspects of the story and became Wilde himself. I think this is why he displays a very keen visual eye and has produced such a stunning period piece which is far from run of the mill. Everett manages to capture Wilde’s rise and fall beautifully, taking in the poetry and tragedy in equal measure. 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. Why it wasn’t taken up by any of the major studios is beyond me. I think the icing on the cake was the dramatic ending where Everett took some factual liberties to right the many wrongs regarding Robbie Ross and Bosie. It shows that he had done his research, he knew these people and decided that he needed to show them, perhaps for the first time, as they really were. It is a masterpiece and I loved everything about it.