Plot
The film opens with Oscar Wilde's 1882 visit to Leadville, Colorado during his lecture tour of the United States. Despite his flamboyant personality and urbane wit, he proves to be a success with the local silver miners as he regales them with tales of Renaissance silversmith Benvenuto Cellini.
Wilde returns to London and weds Constance Lloyd (Jennifer Ehle), and they have two sons in quick succession. While their second child is still an infant, the couple hosts a young Canadian named Robbie Ross (Michael Sheen), who seduces Wilde and helps him come to terms with his homosexuality. On the opening night of his play Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar is re-introduced to the dashingly handsome and openly foppish poet Lord Alfred Douglas (Jude Law), whom he had met briefly the year before, and the two fall into a passionate and tempestuous relationship. Hedonistic Alfred is not content to remain monogamous and frequently engages in sexual activity with rent boys while his older lover plays the role of voyeur.
Alfred's father, the Marquess of Queensberry (Tom Wilkinson), objects to his son's relationship with Oscar and demeans the playwright shortly after the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest. When Oscar sues the Marquess for criminal libel against him, his homosexuality is publicly exposed; he is eventually tried for gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour. In prison, he is visited by his wife, who tells him she isn't divorcing him but is taking their sons to Germany and that he is welcome to visit as long as he never sees Douglas again. Oscar is released from prison and goes straight into exile to continental Europe. In spite of the advice or objections of others, he eventually meets with Alfred.
Throughout the film, portions of the well-loved Wilde story The Selfish Giant are woven in, first by Wilde telling the story to his children, then as narrator, finishing the story as the film ends.
Read more about this topic: Wilde (film)
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