A tony biopic that manages to combine an upfront portrayal of the scribe's gayness with an often moving examination of his broader emotions and artistic ideals.

If anybody was born to play Oscar Wilde, it must have been Stephen Fry: not only does he look like the Green Carnation Man, but he himself is often portrayed as being too clever, too complex for his own good.

Likely to remain the definitive screen treatment of Oscar Wilde for years to come.

What it does -- through a combination of Julian Mitchell's intelligent, literate script and Stephen Fry's magnificently rounded and wholly convincing performance -- is to produce a remarkable portrait of the man.