• Michael Sheen – Robbie Ross
• Stephen Fry – Oscar Wilde
• Jennifer Ehle – Constance Lloyd Wilde
• Jude Law – Lord Alfred Douglas
• Tom Wilkinson – Marquiss of Queensbury
• Gemma Jones – Lady Queensbury
• Vanessa Redgrave – Lady Speranza Wilde

Wilde returns to London and weds Constance Lloyd, and they have two sons in quick succession. While the second child is still an infant, the Wildes are playing host to a young Canadian, Robbie Ross, and the houseguest seduces Oscar 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, 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 Queensbury, a bigot of the worst kind, objects to his son’s relationship with Oscar and threatens to disinherit him should he remain friends with Wilde.

The elder Douglas eventually baits Oscar by publicly demeaning him shortly after the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest. Alfred presses Wilde to sue him for criminal liabel. Robbie advises against it, fearing that Wilde’s sexual preferences would be exposed. Wilde capitulates to Alfred, but the case goes badly as the prosecution are able to produce evidence that he visited a den of rent boys.

Oscar is arrested and tried for gross indecency. He opts to fight the charge rather than flee the country, but is eventually sentenced to two years’ hard labour by an intolerant Victorian court. He is visited in prison 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 the film ends with his attempt to reconcile with Lord 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 with the unhappy end of his life.

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