Gifted British filmmaker Stephen Frears brings the troubled life of bold 1960s author and playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman) to the screen in this portrait of an obsessive, controlling coupling set against history. Orton's infamous relationship with his tempestuous lover, Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina), fueled but also eventually destroyed Orton -- literally and figuratively -- at a time when the world didn't embrace or understand homosexuality.