Regardless of your familiarity with Oscar Wilde, you can tell this movie's based on a book. The dialogue's intelligent, and the themes are potent, but the presentation is a little too stuffy for its own good. Everything's on the dry and talky side, with storytelling that simultaneously feels rushed and padded (as though some chapters are given far too much focus, while others have been ripped out entirely), and a whole lotta narration that, particularly in the middle hour, completely derails the momentum.
Still, there's an old school gothic horror feel to the movie that mostly works. The cinematography, compositions, and sets are uniformly stunning, the actors (especially George Sanders) give these words some life, and the scenes featuring the actual portrait are truly unsettling. I adore the sparing-yet-striking use of colour for those insert shots, and the harsh musical stings that accompany them really add to the terror, in a proto-jump-scare kinda way. Plus, the ending is a solid payoff.
It's just a shame that this aspect takes such a backseat. If we spent as much time on the genre stuff as we do, say, Gray's inner turmoil, or the interchangeable romances, the movie likely would've had a much stronger hold on me.
Grade: B
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