Well written and acted characters

Rating: Null/10 (27 January 2002)

When I first saw this movie, I didn't like it. I didn't understand the heightened world of glam, the sexuality, and the people in this movie. But then I saw it a few days ago for a second time, and this is a truly beautiful movie. The story begins when Oscar Wilde is left on a doorstep of a house, with a green jewel pinned to his blanket. He introduces the sexual revolution to the world. But it still remains quiet. The jewel is passed to one generation to the next. Then Jack Fairy inherits the jewel, gets beat up in the school yard, but smiles as the blood on his lips looks like lipstick. He can't wait to take over the world. Flash ahead to the early seventies, where the revolution is in full swing. The head of it all is Brian Slade with Curt Wilde and Jack Fairy as his supporters, but Brian lets it all go with a fake assassination. Ten years later, the revolution is forgotten. The color and wonder is gone. Arthur Stuart, a reporter, is asked to do a story about Brian Slade and where he went after the fake assassination. Through interviews of people, Arthur not only goes back to the past of Brian Slade, but to his own past. Arthur tried to forget his past, but realizes he should have embraced it. Jonathan Rhys Meyers was excellently cast as Brian Slade, an ego-maniac, yet beautiful and mysterious pop star. He's just so wonderful to look at and he can reflect so much feeling in his face. But his character, I believe, is the most despicable. Ewan McGregor is also excellent as the kind of hilarious and over-the-top Curt Wilde. I think that Curt Wilde is one of the more tragic characters of the movie. Heroin was his "main man", but once he was off it, Brian was his main man, but Brian's ego became too huge leaving Curt scarred. There was a love between them, but the commercial side of Brian destroyed it from ever becoming more than just a publicity stunt. Curt is the only character that ever stayed true to himself in the end. Toni Collette's Mandy Slade is also another great character. She is Brian's American wife who puts an act on as a London hipster. She's all glammed up until Brian's ego and drug addiction snaps her back to reality, and the walls she had built up are torn down and she feels hurt like Curt. And then Christian Bale's Arthur Stuart is like the icing on the cake. His is the character that goes through the biggest change. He's a wide-eyed innocent teenager who embraces glam rock and loves it because it speaks to him. He leaves his oppressive world and lives it up in London and loves it all. But the scene dies, and so does the person Arthur was. When he looks back into his past, he finds himself again, but he doesn't don make up or glitter, he wears a smile on his face and holds those moments to his heart. (Spoiler) Which is why the jewel is passed on to him in the end. He embraces the past and remembers the glory, and carries on the torch of it in his heart. That is the true revolution. Finding yourself and loving yourself. And I felt that there was a story to this movie. That the stylish images had more meaning than just stylish images. And I love it. It's great. I think its a wonderful celebration of glam rock and the world that was moving around it. 9/10
If you like this movie I suggest "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch". "Rocky" because I think it is also a celebration of glam rock and a nice last hurrah of that era, and "Hedwig" because it is about finding yourself beneath the glitz and glamour.