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01/01/00
An Ideal Husband (1999)
87
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:54
Fresh:47
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
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.
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[T]his big-screen version of Wilde's stylish match of deceit and honor, loyalty and betrayal, is more parry than thrust.
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Top CriticTheir 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.
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[W]hile the cinematic version of his farce An Ideal Husband isn't too far from ideal, it's almost too polite.
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Charming, 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.
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Much of the four acts of An Ideal Husband, a serious comedy, is constructed out of flip one-liners, most of which remain, though Parker has added a few, all unworthy of the master.
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Top CriticDon't let the period setting deceive you. This is not a staid drawing rooms and tea drama. Rather, it's a deliriously enjoyable comedy with dashes of plots and romance.
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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.
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Our familiarity with the actors, and their comfort in this period setting, lend the piece an unexpected air of naturalism.
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An Ideal Husband works because Wilde created an expert mechanism (kind of slow-motion serious screwball comedy) for manipulating the plot and characters.
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Top CriticAn Ideal Husband is so determinedly droll that it's likely to leave your cheeks aching from a sustained 96 minute smirk.
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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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