It’s disappointing that Stuart Townsend, who could have been an ideal Dorian Gray, was misused in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's fair to say that at 31, he might have seemed older than appropriate for the part back in 2003, and even more so when this version of Dorian Gray came out in 2009; additionally, he appeared too animated, and it seems from both this film and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) that the best Dorian Gray is someone devoid of personality — a sort of untouched surface, if you will. This idea does make some sense, but it also makes me wonder what people find so appealing about the character. This becomes particularly noticeable with Ben Barnes, who’s so charming that he seduces a young woman and even sleeps with her mother when she objects, all to win a wager; this is something even Oscar Wilde would consider distasteful (though, more than just distasteful, the screenplay by Toby Finlay feels shallow, with Dorian delivering the line "If I told you, I'd have to kill you" in response to Lord Henry’s question about his secret. It’s frightening to think someone might watch this and assume Wilde wrote something so predictable, even if it wasn’t a common trope back in 1890), and we struggle to believe he’s as captivating as director Oliver Parker wants us to think (though, of course, he's wealthy). Dorian is meant to be like Faust, and that means the part is inherently unrewarding — theoretically, he enjoys himself (something the 1945 film wisely kept offscreen; Dorian’s wrongdoings are too terrible to depict, and trying to show them would just be pointless), but in reality, he learns, much like Marcello Mastroianni did, that the glamorous life isn't actually very pleasant. The movie even botches the important role of Lord Henry; Firth is a capable actor, but not right for this part—just as he wasn’t well-suited to play Valmont, and certainly not when compared to George Sanders in the 1945 film.

Source on TMDB