Based on Orton's own diaries (although sadly leaving out some of the
racier parts), this film gives us the playwright's life and death in his
own deadpan words. Oldman sizzles as the enfant terrible of British
theatre, relishing Orton's scatological wit and equally
scatological personal life. The tension between Halliwell (Molina)
and Orton, the older man's jealousy of the younger man's success, is
given an Ortonian theatricality by Frears, who clearly loves the
thespian world he evokes in all its brilliance and squalor.
