`Wilde’ among the rare undistorted biographies

“Wilde.” Directed by Brian Gilbert, written by Julian Mitchell. Based on the book “Oscar Wilde” by Richard Ellmann. Running time: 116 minutes. Rated R (for nudity, sexuality and adult content). June 29 through July 9, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

In 1895, just as Oscar Wilde’s brilliant play “The Importance of Being Earnest” opened to great success in London, the playwright’s controversial life took a sudden turn for the worse.

As audiences were cheering him, plans were afoot to arrest him for sodomy. As he basked in the heady glow of public adoration, there were those gathering to vilify and disgrace him.

How quickly it all came crashing down around Wilde, who was eventually arrested, convicted and sent to prison for “gross indecency,” which, in this case, translates into Wilde having sex with a man he loved during a time when sex between men was forbidden by law.

Based on Richard Ellmann’s excellent biography, Brian Gilbert’s “Wilde,” which features an outstanding performance by Stephen Frye in the title role, is that rare biographical film not distorted by controversy; indeed, it sees clearly through it. It finds in Oscar Wilde a serious man of great wit, sensitivity and intelligence who, by falling in love with the reckless Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas (Jude Law), realized a surprising flaw: his naivete.

Wisely, the film does not begin wtih flaws or with controversy; it’s smarter and more subtle than that. What it showcases first is Wilde as a devoted husband to his wife, Constance (Jennifer Ehle), and loving father to his two sons. We see him at parties and at restaurants, his dry, biting wit skewering the establishment with effortless abandon. Director Gilbert’s great success is in giving us a sense of the man before his hysteria struck — which, for Wilde, came in the form of the bewitching blonde “Bosie,” who entered into a relationship with Wilde not for love, but for one selfish purpose: to shock and anger his belligerent father, the Marquess of Queensbury (Tom Wilkinson).

Indeed, it is the Marquess, furious by Wilde’s relationship with his son, who vowed to destroy him.

But Wilde, so comfortable with the leeway fame gave him, led his life as if it were coated in Teflon. With Bosie, a man half his age, he flirted openly in public with scant regard for the repercussions. An idealist, he believed in the purity of his feelings, even while Bosie’s disregard for them was painfully clear. Wilde knew the Marquess wanted to string him to the highest tree, yet he continued his open affair with the man’s son.

Reckless? Of course. Naive? That goes without saying. But when has love — or the artist — ever paid attention to the rules?

Grade: A-

Video of the Week “The Wings of the Dove.” Directed by Iain Softley. Written by Hossein Amini, based on the novel by Henry James. Running time: 103 minutes. Rated R (for nudity and adult content).

Iain Softley’s adaptation of Henry James’ 1902 novel has all the elements to interest the contemporary viewer: poisonous relationships, love triangles, social-climbing countesses, scheming vixens and, typical of James, a cold-blooded ending that destroys the main characters’ lives.

As written by Hossein Amini, James’ text has held up beautifully through the years, no doubt because Victorian literature is the root for so much of what we see on screen today.

The story follows Kate Croy (Helena Bonham Carter), the unfortunate protagonist of so many misfortunes: Her mother has died and her father is an opium addict. Without money or a place to live, Kate is invited into the townhouse of her wealthy Aunt Maude (Charlotte Rampling), a conniving member of the aristocracy who is determined to marry Kate off to a rich husband of high social standing.

But Kate already is in love with Merton Densher (Linus Roache), a good-looking, but ill-paid, journalist her aunt has forbidden her to see. Not brave enough to accept Merton’s middle-class existence, and not wanting herself or her father to be cut off financially by her aunt, Kate agrees to give Merton up — for a time.

Enter the very rich Millie Theale (Alison Elliott), a young, kind-hearted American heiress who, quickly and unwittingly, becomes part of a sinister plot Kate devises in an effort to win Merton back. That one person leaves this trio in a casket gives this complex film an emotional weight that James’ novel lacked. Kate is not so evil here as she is in the book. Instead, she is softer, at times almost sympathetic — even as her plan to fatten Merton’s bank account goes horribly awry.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews films each Monday in the NEWS.