One of my all time favorites.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Before writing this I saw an interview with Kenneth Williams best known as being part of the Carry On troupe. He gave some interesting insights into Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell. As a gay man himself Williams experienced and felt the same things in the days before sodomy laws were repealed in the United Kingdom, considerably before they were in the USA. The pressures of living as a couple increased exponentially especially a May/August couple as Orton and Halliwell were.Joe Orton whose work I'd like to see and is curiously unavailable is played by Gary Oldman and we see him as a young writer befriended and mentored by Kenneth Halliwell who is older and played by Alfred Molina. Williams says that in his opinion there is no doubt the influence that Halliwell had on Orton's work. But they were two very different types of personality and probably were fated to come apart. Especially when Halliwell who mentored Orton was not finding any success with his own writing. In the end it destroyed them.Great Britain had some strict sodomy laws as Oscar Wilde was living testimony to. Gay artists however got different treatments depending on who their patrons were. Oscar Wilde and the Orton/Halliwell duo in their respective generations were treated one way. But Noel Coward moved at the highest levels of British society and he had a Teflon like immunity from what befell the other three.The film is told in flashback with Vanessa Redgrave as Orton's agent telling his biographer Wallace Shawn what the two were about individually and separately. Both Oldman and Molina were brilliant.I can't help thinking that if they could have been traditionally married back then, they could also have been traditionally divorced when the love faded. That certainly would have been better all around.But then we would not have had this fascinating tragedy.

In 1967, Joe Orton was murdered in his flat by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell. This is how we open Prick Up Your Ears, and through the use of flashbacks we are told the story of these two men and what drew them together and then so far apart. The dynamic between Orton and Halliwell is fascinating and takes us through many important societal, psychological and social themes, but the whole thing is slightly diminished by the gimmick of telling it through a third party.After Orton's death, Peggy Ramsay helps John Lahr to write a novel based on Orton's life (a novel that the film itself is based on) and we are told their story through her telling the story. It's a really mundane, typical movie structure used to tell a biographical story but it's absolutely unnecessary when these characters and their story is already fascinating on it's own. Any time spent away from Orton and Halliwell feels needless and dampens the impact of when we actually get to see their story on screen, even though Vanessa Redgrave is quite good as Ramsay.Still, this is a slight detractor when the majority of the film is indeed focused on the growing lives of Orton and Halliwell, how they met and ultimately drove to violence. The progression of this relationship is truly fascinating, as we open on the end and slowly get to see what drives them to such animosity towards each other. I think the film hits on some interesting themes in regards to relationships that aren't touched on much in film; how love can eventually become more of an obligation than a passion, in some cases.The performances in the lead roles certainly help to highlight the emotional highs and lows of these two men. Alfred Molina is giving the more theatrical, outwardly emotive role of Halliwell, a man constantly at odds with himself and the world around him, constantly trying to hide who he is and grating the nerves of everyone around him. It's a character that could have easily been grating and unbearable to sit through, but Molina's skill manages to make him tragically sympathetic.The real star though is Gary Oldman, who knocks it out of the park as Orton. The character isn't as showy as Halliwell, but when you look back and consider the progression that he makes in this role, it's absolutely astonishing. It's a very internal performance but, in the way that the best actors are capable of doing, he absolutely transforms throughout the film, making a natural evolution without the audience even noticing. It feels so genuine when you're watching that you can't even tell, but when you get to the end and look back at the beginning, it's absolutely astonishing. He begins as this closeted young man who doesn't even understand who is and over the course of the film is opened into a freed young homosexual and eventually a conceited, arrogant playwright.The performance is tremendous in it's own right, but becomes even more impressive when you compare it to his portrayal as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy the year before. In just one year he goes from an outwardly chaotic and theatrical extreme to such a quiet and internal one. It's absolutely mesmerizing what this man is capable of doing and if you watched these two performances one right after the other, you wouldn't be able to believe that this is the same actor portraying them.

A hopscotch series of flashbacks reconstructs events leading to the brutal 1967 murder of controversial young British playwright Joe Orton by his lover Ken Halliwell. There's an attempt to explain the crime in the context of England's then draconian anti-gay legal system, but underneath the forthright candor of the homosexual love scenes is an all-too conventional biography, like others emphasizing a tragic story of romance gone sour.The leapfrog structure opens before the couple's first meeting (in drama class where, in a playacting exercise, Halliwell throttles an imaginary cat), and continues through the moment they became lovers (during a TV broadcast of the Queen's coronation) to their inevitable estrangement, as the insecure Halliwell becomes increasingly jealous of Orton's professional acclaim and uninhibited promiscuity. The performances alone are enough to recommend the film, but the brevity of Orton's life (cut short almost at the moment of his first success) doesn't allow for much in the way of character development. And because no examples of his eccentric playwriting are included, the author himself remains (to anyone unfamiliar with his work) too much of a mystery.

Director Stephen Frears has often picked up interesting subjects for his films. 'Prick Up Your Ears' is based on the relationship between famous writer Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell. Set in the 60s, this was during the time when 'being gay' in public was considered a criminal offense in parts of UK. Joe Orton is confident, talented, mellow and liked by everyone while his partner Halliwell is comparatively shy and distant and resentful of Joe's success as he claims to be the man behind his partner's success and complains about not receiving enough credit for it.Frears depicts the relationship quite sensibly. There is almost always a conflict or a disagreement in Orton and Halliwell's sequences but the love is always apparent. While Kenneth's insecurity worsens as Joe climbs every step up towards success, Joe always stands by him. The viewer is also given brief glimpses of Joe's relationship with his mother, sister and confidant Peggy. The depiction of the 60's gay culture is also intriguing.The execution isn't first rate as the cinematography is flat and the editing leaves a lot to be desired. The pacing is very slow. The lighting could have used some improvement.The acting is superb. Gary Oldman is spellbinding as Joe Orton. Even though he is more commonly known for his villainous roles, movies like these prove what a versatile actor he is. Alfred Molina is brilliant as Kenneth. A foxy Julie Walters makes her presence felt in a limited role. Vanessa Redgrave is remarkable in a brief but memorable role.'Prick Up Your Ears' is an interesting psychological character study and true crime drama. In addition to the wonderful performances, the writing is first rate, especially the witty dialogues loaded with humour. The movie ends on a note of leaving the viewer to wonder what would have become of Orton's life had he still lived. Here was a man who had everything going for him...except one thing that ended his life.