can whine about some technical aspects, but doing so won't detract from the experience.

He gives us an Oscar that is vain, glorious and in the throes of the most terrible pain; this is an Oscar 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 splendid but so too are Emily Watson as Constance, Colin Firth as Reggie Turner, John Standing as his doctor and Tom Wilkinson 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 an actor's piece and no mistake.However, for a work that is primarily literary and for a first-time director Everett also displays a very keen visual eye. This is a handsome period piece but far from a stuffy one. Everett manages to capture the flavour of Oscar's rise and fall beautifully. 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. Unmissable.

rent-boys in Naples for a few bickering months. Robbie Ross Edwin Turner and Reggie Turner Colin Firth are the last London friends who offer loyalty and handouts.Everett's Wilde is as poignant as Stephen Fry's but even more pitiable as poverty and ill-health overcome him. Colin Morgan gives 'Bosie' his prettiest incarnation since John Fraser in 1960. Emily Watson shines in brief scenes as Oscar's wife Constance, also forced into exile by his disgrace. Tom Wilkinson contributes a vivid cameo as the priest brought to Oscar's hotel deathbed. The famous lines about the wallpaper and 'dying beyond my means' are not forgotten; and Everett has scripted a few one-liners Oscar would happily steal the credit for.The final scenes almost certainly take liberties with the facts, but they add an operatic grandeur to the 'Last Act'. Rupert Everett's long struggle to realise this project is a splendid homage to the tragedy of the 'comeback' that was Wilde's greatest drama, his greatest tragedy. The movie deserves to be garlanded with awards: an Oscar for Oscar!

brutally depicted in one of the few scenes set in Britain. The fresher, less cynically abusive and non-bullying Continental sensibility is rendered beautifully in such characters as the street urchins and other smaller roles, such as, Oscar's uniformed admirer, Maurice, who appears silently in a number of scenes. On this note, the private party scene in Naples is a howler. The expected Wilde witticisms are, as always, a delight, yet so too are the Wilde-esque additions. The acting is superb, locations and sets wonderfully evocative and score unnoticed which is the highest compliment . While it is always a pleasure to see more of Emily Watson, her character, Constance, Oscar's estranged wife, did not need more screen time in this story, as some critics have suggested; although her decisions had serious repercussions, her role in Oscar's life during this period, was minimal. The script and pacing have also been criticised by other reviewers, and while this may be valid to some degree, it personally did not detract from my viewing experience. As every sensitive Anglo boy knows, you shouldn't read the story "The Happy Prince" when others are around lest they see your tears and persecute you for them. Thank you, Rupert. A very real portrayal for people who 'understand'.

charges of sodomy and gross indecency - following his lewd bordering on nefarious behaviour in the eyes of the law - have left him near destitute; a far cry from the opulent lifestyle that once he had led.The Happy Prince is built loosely around Wilde reciting his fairy tale of the same name to both his own biological sons - during happier married times - and latterly on his death bed to the rag tag 'family' of young urchins that he had befriended.Wilde - under his newly acquired guise of Melmoth - has a kind of morbidly humorous fascination with both the hopelessness of the predicament in which he now finds himself, and with the plethora of men that continue to fawn over him.A period piece The Happy Prince may essentially be, but there's a strongly contemporary feel to the film's at times bewitching cinematography, switching neatly and expertly by way of multiple rapid cross fades between Wilde's past and present in an effort to build a picture of - and emphasise the massive disparity between - 'now' and then.Everett's stupendous performance as Wilde is both arresting and heartfelt, whilst there are meaningful contributions from Colin Firth as Wilde's good friend Reggie, and from Colin Morgan and Edwin Thomas as Bosie and Robbie, respectively, the two mainstays in Wilde's love life who continue to compete fiercely for his attentions, and between whom there is absolutely no love lost.As for Emily Watson's portrayal of Constance, as solid as it is, one can't help but think that it remains a little peripheral to the film's narrative at times. Perhaps Everett could have made a little more of the clearly strained relationship that had existed between the two, and the impact that this had had upon their children?It seems that Wilde was indeed harshly dealt with, and laws or no laws, would have had rightful justification to feel aggrieved at his treatment at the hands of the rather puritanical overreaching government of the time.That said, Everett's film seems intent to paint Wilde not as some sort of saintly martyr, but as a charming but deeply flawed man with a propensity for making poor life decisions. A man who had flown too close to the sun, and who perhaps had been more than a little guilty of using and abusing those that knew and loved him so much for his own personal gain.The Happy Prince, whilst at times cheeky and playful in its outlook, never strays too far from its melancholic roots in its elegantly crafted, poignant regaling of the final days of the late great Oscar Wilde.