The Happy Prince
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: October 10, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatTiffany TchobanianOct 5, 2018
Everett looks at home in this role and breathes new life into Wilde. The Happy Prince proves that Rupert Everett was born to tell the tumultuous story of a kindred spirit. Oscar Wilde would be proud. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerOct 19, 2018
The cast is solid; Everett’s acting in particular is deep, indelible and award-worthy. We smell Oscar, one might say. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughOct 17, 2018
Everett draws effectively from Wilde’s own writings and witticisms. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinOct 9, 2018
It’s a film of decided care and forethought. Read full review
80
EmpireAndrew LowryJun 18, 2018
Even if his prosthetics make him look a bit like James May, Everett is near-flawless, and his film is a superb showcase for an actor whose celebrity has at times overshadowed his talent. There’s been plenty of due diligence in terms of the details, and anyone who thinks Wilde was just the Stephen Fry of his day will learn a lot here. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
This film is a deeply felt, tremendously acted tribute to courage. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The Happy Prince proves that a film can be both bleak and warm-spirited, as befits its mighty subject. Read full review
80
Screen DailyFionnuala Halligan
Wilde’s mighty struggle with himself, with his heavenly talent and earthly lusts, and the meaning of it all resonates so strongly with the direction and performance that The Happy Prince is easily elevated past period Victoriana (and that wallpaper) to move and engage in equal parts. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldOct 25, 2018
Florid but warmhearted — much like the man at its center — The Happy Prince is a haunting portrait of the aftermath of betrayal; of how the master of comedy became a tragedy. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 24, 2018
Everett makes this Wilde a magnificent ruin, reveling in self-pity rather than wallowing in it. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyOct 10, 2018
This is Everett's first film as a director, and there are times when it shows. But what he brings to the table - as a director, writer, and actor - is his intuitive "take" on Oscar Wilde and the performance alone makes this riveting and revelatory viewing. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 10, 2018
Everett’s utterly fantastic performance as Wilde slightly exceeds his grasp as a first-time filmmaker. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 11, 2018
A sense of injustice runs like a toxic river through Everett’s film, an affront to homophobia through the ages, even our enlightened one. In the end, The Happy Prince makes its strongest mark as a heartfelt salute to Wilde from an actor and filmmaker who was born to play him. Read full review
63
Washington PostMark JenkinsOct 15, 2018
Fortunately, the maudlin moments are offset by fine performances, flashes of humor and a visual sense that’s more astute than the script. Read full review
60
TheWrapDan CallahanOct 8, 2018
It finally matters very little that The Happy Prince is haphazardly written and awkwardly directed because Everett is an intelligent man who has a deep imaginative connection to Wilde and his wit and his cruising and his whole worldview. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid Rooney
Despite Everett's command in the central performance and a script liberally sprinkled with amusing bons mots, The Happy Prince generates only faltering dramatic momentum and a shortage of pathos. Read full review
60
VarietyGuy Lodge
As a final, permanent showcase for a role Everett was born to play, then, The Happy Prince does the job. For all its passion-project hallmarks, however, it makes a shakier case for him being the filmmaker to bring it to screen. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim Robey
Everett overdoes the lachrymosity right at the end, the one part of the film where a more subdued rigour would have served him better. At the very least, though, it’s a command performance he puts in front of us, an uncompromising feat of empathy in the role he’s made his own more than any other. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric Kohn
The Happy Prince largely amounts to a bland rumination on Wilde’s lesser-known decline. Read full review
58
The PlaylistGregory Ellwood
It’s well crafted and compelling at times thanks mostly to the casts’ efforts, but there is an emptiness that permeates through the film as if a significant piece of Wilde’s demise is missing. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 24, 2018
There are scenes during which Everett’s Wilde commands our wide-eyed attention, still mesmerizing despite his physical and psychological decline. Yet in between those quickened moments, The Happy Prince trudges forward with monotonous uniformity. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonOct 18, 2018
It finds the right harmonized note of melancholy and humor in its closing moments. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisOct 9, 2018
Suffused with a sentimentality that Wilde himself would have deplored, The Happy Prince is narratively mushy and meandering. Yet, beneath the prosthetics, there’s genuine pathos in Mr. Everett’s portrayal of a man bitterly aware that his talents are unreliable armor against the perceived sin of his homosexuality. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChuck BowenOct 3, 2018
For every haunting sequence in The Happy Prince, there’s five that redundantly wallow in Oscar Wilde’s misery, which is Rupert Everett’s point, but it becomes wearisome. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloOct 9, 2018
Despite its undercurrent of anger at Wilde’s mistreatment by fashionable English society, the film feels like a vanity production—and Everett clearly fears that it may be perceived that way, as he opts to bill himself fifth (non-alphabetically) in the cast, despite appearing in almost every shot. Such false modesty ill suits a flamboyant legend like Oscar Wilde, even in a perverse account of his slow fade to black. Read full review
20
Arizona RepublicSamantha IncorvaiaOct 10, 2018
The goal here was to show the tragic downfall of a once-praised hero, similar to the actual poem written by Wilde with the same name. But because of the lack of depth in supporting characters and half-baked writing, this movie couldn't have ended fast enough. Read full review
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