Spellbound before his own portrait, Dorian Gray utters a fateful wish. In exchange for eternal youth he gives his soul, to be corrupted by the malign influence of his mentor, the aesthete and hedonist Lord Henry Wotton. The novel was met with moral outrage by contemporary critics who, dazzled perhaps by Wilde's brilliant style, may have confused the author with his creation, Lord Henry, to whom even Dorian protests, 'You cut life to pieces with your...

Coles is a film student and he meets two fellow undergrads, Thea and Sam. Coles and Sam come together, but in time, Sam tires of Coles' hedonistic attitude, and they break up. Now ten years later, Coles is doing animation for an advertising agency and living with his girlfriend, Claire. Thea helps run a successful restaurant. Sam, smarting from a bad breakup, returns to New York after several years in London. Coles runs into Sam and discovers he still...