Certain stretches truly sparkle, but the movie is not as inventive as The Winslow Boy, nor as relaxed and goofy as Midsummer[night's Dream].
Comment
05/26/06
An Ideal Husband (1999)
87
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:53
Fresh:46
Rotten:7
Average Rating:7.4/10
Consensus: Brevity is the soul of wit, eh? This adaptation gets to the nitty gritty of Wilde's stage piece and plays on eternal human foibles.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Sir Robert Chiltern (Northam) is a successful Government minister with a loving wife. He is threatened when a lady (Moore) appears with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns for help... [More]
Starring: Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver
Director: Oliver Parker
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Reviews for An Ideal Husband
Their entire world was constructed around subtlety, and, in tune with that, the one word that can be used to describe An Ideal Husband is subtle.
01/01/00
The drama boasts a treasure trove of witty dialogue and some fascinating characters who are forced to prioritize their values in strange circumstances.
03/03/02
Pleasantly diverting, but unlikely to inspire the kind of deep thinking about hypocrisy and unreasonable standards of virtue that Wilde intended
01/01/00
[T]his big-screen version of Wilde's stylish match of deceit and honor, loyalty and betrayal, is more parry than thrust.
01/01/00
The exquisite teamwork and byplay make the film such a delight to watch.
11/18/09
An Ideal Husband works because Wilde created an expert mechanism (kind of slow-motion serious screwball comedy) for manipulating the plot and characters.
01/01/00
Top CriticParker does an admirable job of translating Wilde's often static, emotionally distant collection of one-liners into a fairly hot morass of straitlaced morals pitted against barely repressed passions...
01/01/00
Only during the final reel, when the players and the camera are suddenly afflicted with a bad case of the cutesies, does this highly entertaining film feel out of balance.
01/01/00
[T]his Husband plods and ambles and bears the burden of a soundtrack that resembles a wimpy meditation tape.
01/01/00
Top CriticIn adapting the play, Mr. Parker has streamlined and rewritten Wilde's dialogue, keeping some (but not all) of Wilde's biting epigrams and scraping off a lot (perhaps too much) of the Victorian crust.
01/01/00
Top CriticCharming, delightful, comical at times, interesting at others, this film is drenched in beautiful settings and costumes, witty dialogue, and a great cast of actors in their top form.
01/01/00
I liked Oliver Parker's film adaptation even better, for reasons I can sum up in two words: Rupert Everett. And not cuz he's scrumptious. Or gay.
01/01/00
The dialogue is anything but flat, virtually every line both driving the plot forward and functioning as a key to the playwright's sense of irony.
01/01/00
Such an adaptation comes across effectively because the writer's topics are not limited to certain time periods.
01/01/00
It is, of course, an ensemble piece and the entire cast brings it together with skill and style under Parker's skillful direction.
01/01/00
While it would have been easy to simply rely on the strength of Wilde's writing to carry the project, Parker and his cast never give any less than their very best...
06/05/02
It is sad that this kind of dialogue is seen so infrequently in modern films; Wilde had a way with words unparalleled in this century.
02/08/03
Alas, something went wrong between stage and screen...
10/15/02
Parker has made a sensible cinematic translation of Wilde's play, intercutting scenes which would have been played consecutively on the stage.
07/21/05
Top CriticLatest News for An Ideal Husband
May 13, 2005:
Trailer Bulletin: "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe"
Right here at Rotten Tomatoes you can enjoy the all-new trailer for the upcoming and highly anticipated movie version of C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion,... More...
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