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An Ideal Husband (1999)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
18 June 1999 (USA) moreTagline:
He just doesn't know it yet.Plot:
Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful Government minister, well-off and with a loving wife. All this is... more | add synopsisAwards:
Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 4 wins & 14 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(17 articles)
Dorian Gray Promo Art Surfaces (From TheMovingPicture. 21 June 2009, 10:03 PM, PDT)
Fortissimo to distribute Indian Film's Road, Movie in the overseas market
(From BollywoodHungama. 15 May 2009, 9:00 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Good, but it could have been great moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Cate Blanchett | ... | Lady Gertrude Chiltern | |
| Minnie Driver | ... | Miss Mabel Chiltern | |
| Rupert Everett | ... | Lord Arthur Goring | |
| Julianne Moore | ... | Mrs. Laura Cheveley | |
| Jeremy Northam | ... | Sir Robert Chiltern | |
| John Wood | ... | Lord Caversham | |
| Peter Vaughan | ... | Phipps | |
| Ben Pullen | ... | Tommy Trafford | |
| Marsha Fitzalan | ... | Countess | |
| Lindsay Duncan | ... | Lady Markby | |
| Neville Phillips | ... | Mason | |
| Nickolas Grace | ... | Vicomte de Nanjac | |
| Simon Russell Beale | ... | Sir Edward | |
| Anna Patrick | ... | Miss Danvers | |
| Delia Lindsay | ... | Lady Basildon |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for brief sensuality/nudity.Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
97 minLanguage:
EnglishColor:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Dolby DigitalCertification:
Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | USA:PG-13 (certificate #36196) | Australia:PG | UK:PG | Argentina:Atp | Chile:TE | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:o.Al. | New Zealand:PG | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud)Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The play attended by the characters in the movie is Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." The tall, older man that addresses the audience from the stage at the end of the play represents Wilde who did in reality address the audience when his play first debuted. moreGoofs:
Anachronisms: At the reception at the Chiltern's home, Sir Robert is requested to meet the Indian Ambassador. In 1895 India was a British possession and there could not be such an Ambassador who represents only independent states. moreQuotes:
Gertrude: Lord Goring, you are talking quite seriously.Lord Arthur Goring: You must forgive me, Lady Chiltern. It won't occur again.
Gertrude: No, I like you to be serious.
[Enter Mabel]
Mabel: Gertrude, please don't say such a dreadful thing to Lord Goring. Seriousness would be very unbecoming to him. Good morning, Lord Goring. Pray be as trivial as you can.
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If I weren't so lazy, I would have checked the original play to see if my favorite line from the movie was in it:
Goring's father: I use nothing but my common sense. Goring: So my mother tells me.
Even if was concocted for the film, that line still contains the essence of Wilde and the essence of all modern British humor, for which, I should say, I'm a major sucker. While watching An Ideal Husband, I didn't object to the lack of suspense as long as Rupert Everett was working his way around those Wilde lines, which he does as well as anyone I've ever heard.
I used to think Stephen Fry was Wilde on earth, but Fry is something wonderfully different -- Everett is Wilde on earth, or at least the actor that Wilde should have had around to deliver those lines when he wrote them. I first saw Everett in The Madness of King George, for which he put on weight. Every review of that film mentioned this; I thought the attention excessive, but when I saw him lying shirtless in a sauna, I understood. The man is, shall we say, cut. I can only imagine the effect of that scene on straight women or gay men -- probably something akin to the effect Greta Scacchi's "I think we're alone now" smile at the end of The Coca-Cola Kid has on me.
An Ideal Husband is full of good performances, with one glaring exception: the usually great Julianne Moore. Her scenes are curiously leaden, and Parker -- whose fault this may be -- has the camera linger over her as though the exposure will convince us how evil she is. The one exception is her scene with Everett, which has a real "Will he sleep with the enemy?" tension. It may be that Moore was just outclassed by the Brits, who are born to this stuff.
Cate Blanchett, whom I've seen in three movies, two of which were British period pieces, continues to amaze me with her range.
The unsung hero of the movie is Jeremy Northam, who takes a thankless role -- the man in the play who isn't the Oscar Wilde figure -- and makes it emotionally compelling. He is responsible for the play's only real suspense and emotion, since the rest is word games, more or less.
All of which leads me to blame the production's shortcomings on its writer/director, Oliver Parker. He seems to have squandered an outstanding cast. The play's final scene is played as a series of French scenes -- a film term for a series of different scenes in the same location -- and this kills any momentum that scene might have had.
Three out of four stars, I say, which makes it better than 90% of the movies out there.