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An Ideal Husband [1999]
from Pathe Distribution
starring Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver, Jeremy Northam
directed by Oliver Parker

Features:

• PAL
• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

For truly clever dialogue and a smartly structured plot, you can't go wrong with Oscar Wilde. Wilde's play An Ideal Husband is not his best known, but this film adaptation has all the wit you could ask for and a cast with the chops to deliver it: Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, Oscar and Lucinda), Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights, Short Cuts), Minnie Driver (Grosse Pointe Blank, Big Night), Jeremy Northam (The Winslow Boy, Emma), and especially Rupert Everett (My Best Friend's Wedding, A Midsummer Night's Dream), who tosses off perfect epigrams with unflappable aplomb. The plot hinges on Northam, a member of Parliament (the British governing body, not the funk band) with a skeleton in his closet who is blackmailed into a shady business deal by a lady of mystery (Moore), who turns out to be a loathed school chum of the parliamentarian's wife (Blanchett). Everything is resolved happily, but not until after some devious twists of fate, several mistaken identities, lots of comic banter, and much social skewering. Wilde, whose troubled life and public exposure of his homosexuality is chronicled in the movie Wilde (1997), has a sharp eye for hypocrisy and the artificial poses demanded by society--but political commentary never gets in the way of a smart laugh. Visually sumptuous and briskly paced, An Ideal Husband will satisfy anyone looking for social satire or romantic comedy. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• the perfect social satire: one can not beat Oscar Wilde and Rupert Everett is the perfect incarnation
  An Ideal Husband is an 1895 play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. The action is set in London, in "the present", and takes place over the course of three days. "Sooner or later," Wilde notes, "we shall all have to pay for what we do." But he adds that, "No one should be entirely judged by their past.
  The movie is classy and captures uppper-class London to perfection. The language is wonderful and the lines... more info

• Seriously underrated film
  This is the sort of film that you really want to own. It loses nothing and gains detail the more often you watch it. Rupert Everett's lack of leading roles is a great loss to film, as he has the looks, timing and presence to carry off any number of romantic leads. I don't see what an actor's private proclivities have to do with what they portray on screen - Cary Grant being an interesting topic in that respect. Anyway, it's a fantastic script, a good plot, a serious message in a fluffy film with a happy... more info

• A really good film
  Marked down from 5 to 4 because of the poor sound production at times, but still worth watching nevertheless.

  This is a film where the words are crucial, it is based on a play by Oscar Wilde after all! So why did they think it would be a good idea to have obtrusive 'background' music spilling into the foreground and nearly drowning out the speech? Not all the time, but enough to take the edge of an otherwise excellent film.

  Forget a night at the theatre, just watch this, though now I've seen it I will... more info

• An Ideal dialogue film
  Having read the other reviews I have to slightly disagree with the overall tone - this is the perfect comedy of manners with outstanding performances by the whole cast. Jeremy Northam plays a gentle shy man conflicted by ambition and his morals whose wife Cate Blanchett puts him on a pedestal to worship. The subsequent revelation of the hypocrisy at the heart of their marriage is deliciously decorated by all the supporting cast who are manipulated by Rupert Everett enjoying the finest hour (or two!) of his... more info

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