‘The Happy Prince’ Details Life of Oscar Wilde

Not to be confused with Oscar Wilde’s short story of the same name, the film The Happy Prince is neither about a fictional royal nor a particular “happy” tale but rather is the story of the celebrated author and playwright. The Dublin-born Wilde (1854-1900) is depicted in all his eloquent quippery and societal scandal-making — he was a homosexual in an era when such a predisposition was criminal. Veteran British actor Rupert Everett is a triple threat here, as writer, director, and star of the biopic (with Colin Firth and Emily Watson also in the cast) that mostly dwells on Wilde’s travails leading up to and after his two years of imprisonment for “gross indecency.” The film inspires and meanders by turns, but Everett is a magnetizing center of the narrative storm.