Dorian Gray

"Forever Young. Forever Cursed."

2009 1h 52m EN

😐

6.0

MID

🥫

43%

ROTTEN

⭐

6.2

IMDB

★6.0TMDB · 2,293🥫43%Rotten Tomatoes★6.2IMDB · 71,553

FantasyDramaThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Seduced into the decadent world of Lord Henry Wotton, handsome young aristocrat Dorian Gray becomes obsessed with maintaining his youthful appearance, and commissions a special portrait that will weather the winds of time while he remains forever young. When Gray's obsession spirals out of control, his desperate attempts to safeguard his secret turn his once-privileged life into a living hell.

“Forever Young. Forever Cursed.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

Google Play MoviesRent

YouTubeRent

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Cast

Ben Barnes
Dorian Gray
Colin Firth
Lord Henry Wotton
Rebecca Hall
Emily Wotton
Emilia Fox
Lady Victoria Wotton
Ben Chaplin
Basil Hallward
Fiona Shaw
Agatha
Caroline Goodall
Lady Radly
Maryam D'Abo
Gladys

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Oliver Parker
Writers: Toby Finlay
Languages: Russian, Polish, English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 17 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Russian, Polish, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Oliver Parker, shot by Roger Pratt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Charlie Mole. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Guy Bensley shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Ben Barnes and Colin Firth and Rebecca Hall carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Forever Young. Forever Cursed.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt1235124 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Oliver Parker directs. Roger Pratt behind the camera. Charlie Mole scores. Guy Bensley cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in Russian, Polish, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 17 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Russian, Polish, English.
3Directed by Oliver Parker, shot by Roger Pratt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Charlie Mole. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Guy Bensley shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Ben Barnes and Colin Firth and Rebecca Hall carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Forever Young. Forever Cursed.".
8IMDB entry: tt1235124 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 8 themes, including "based on novel or book", "obsession", "painting", "victorian england".

The technical file

Cinematography: Roger Pratt
Original score: Charlie Mole
Editing: Guy Bensley
Production design: John Beard
Costume design: Ruth Myers
Makeup / hair: Jeremy Woodhead
Runtime: 112 min · 1h 52m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $4,706,919
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Dorian Gray (2009)
Rotten Tomatoes: 43% 🥫 Rotten
IMDB rating: 6.2/10 · 71,553 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 nomination total

Also by

Oliver Parker

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-10-30
★ 5/10
How Ominous! Another adaptation of the Oscar Wilde story. Film is about Dorian Gray (Ben Barnes), a man taken by the hedonism bug shown to him by Lord Wotton (Colin Firth). Upon having his portrait painted, Dorian comes to never age, but at what cost? Clearly not faithful to the literary source, Oliver Parker's film is an interesting misfire. As a sexy chiller it kinda works, having more in common with Hammer Films of the 70s than with Wilde's prose. Yet it often feels like style over substance, blood or nudity for blood and nudity's sake. While strong performances by Firth and late in the play by Rebecca Hall hold the attention, Barnes is bland and apart from being pretty, is unconvincing. Also irritating is Charlie Mole's musical score, it's good, it's just not in the right movie! The makers try to make a Gothic horror film from a Gothic horror novel, but never quite get to grips with the undercurrents of the story. Shame. 5/10
Gimly2019-12-28
★ 4/10
Handballs it in on just about every important (and engaging) aspect of the actual Portrait of Dorian Gray story. Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.
tmdb280390232022-09-13
★ 1/10
It's a shame that such a theoretically perfect Dorian Gray as Stuart Townsend was wasted on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Sure, at 31, Townsend was arguably too old for the role in 2003, and even more so in 2009, the year this Dorian Gray was released; he was also too expressive, and based on both this film and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), it seems that the ideal Dorian Gray is a blank page — an unpainted canvas, so to speak, and while this makes a degree of sense, it does leave us wondering what exactly everyone sees in the titular character. This is especially true of Ben Barnes, who’s so irresistible that he strips a young debutante of her virtue and, when her mother tries protests, he sleeps with her too, winning a bet in the process; this is a development that even Oscar Wilde would find vulgar (but, worse than vulgar, screenwriter Toby Finlay is trite, making Dorian say, when asked by Lord Henry (Colin Firth) what his secret is, the line "If I told you, I'd have to kill you." ”; I shudder to think that someone watching this film might believe that Wilde is responsible for this cliché, even if in 1890 it was not yet a one), and that we find it incredible because Dorian is nowhere near as fascinating as director Oliver Parker would like us to believe (but he is rich, though, so there’s that). Now, Dorian is a Faustian character, and as such, he has little choice but to be a thankless role — yes, in theory he has a lot of fun (fun that the 1945 film, unlike this one, wisely left offscreen; Dorian’s vices are unspeakable, and trying to flesh them out is useless and counterproductive), but in practice he discovers, like Marcello Mastroianni, that the Dolce Vita is actually very bitter. The movie even manages to screw up the really juicy role of Lord Henry; Firth is a good actor, but wrong (especially when compared to George Sanders in the 1945 version) for this role for the same reasons that made him a poor choice for Valmont.