An Ideal Husband
UK Theatrical release poster
Directed byOliver Parker
Written byOliver Parker
Based onAn Ideal Husband
1895 play
by Oscar Wilde
Produced byBarnaby Thompson
Bruce Davey
Uri Fruchtmann
Starring
CinematographyDavid Johnson
Edited byGuy Bensley
Music byCharlie Mole
Production
company
Distributed byPathé Distribution[1]
Release date
  • 16 April 1999 (1999-04-16)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£6.3 million[2]
Box office$18.5 million[3]

An Ideal Husband is a 1999 British film based on the 1895 play An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde. The film stars Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver, Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore and Jeremy Northam. It was directed by Oliver Parker.

It was selected as the 1999 Cannes Film Festival's closing film.[4]

Premise

Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful government minister, well-off and with a loving wife. All this is threatened when Mrs. Cheveley appears in London with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns to his friend Lord Goring, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father, for help. Goring knows the lady of old and the plot to help his friend has unintended consequences.

Cast

Differences from play

The plot of the film differs from the original Wilde play in a number of key respects. The episode of Mrs. Cheveley's lost bracelet was removed, and the twists at the end are made more complex by the introduction of a bet between Lord Goring and Mrs Cheveley, and Lord Goring's need to ask the permission of Sir Robert Chiltern to marry his sister, Miss Mabel Chiltern.

Reception

The film received positive reviews from critics, including Roger Ebert, who awarded it 3 out of 4 stars.[5] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote the film is "an enjoyable, minor, lustrously shot revamping of Oscar Wilde’s play about the perpetually interlocked manners of love and deception…Everett gets all the good lines, but he’s daring enough to deliver them gently, with a knowing touch of rue."[6]

Stephen Holden of The New York Times also reviewed the film positively, writing, "If An Ideal Husband transports us back to a world that seems more refined than ours, it also flatters us, as Wilde flattered the play's fin de siècle audience, by arriving at a plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face piece of wisdom that after all the preceding badinage may seem more profound than it really is. Hollywood couldn't come up with a tidier feel-good ending -- one that gets everybody off the hook -- than An Ideal Husband's concluding moral: Nobody's perfect."[7]

On Rotten Tomatoes, An Ideal Husband has an approval rating of 85% based on 67 critics’ reviews.[8] The site’s critics consensus reads, "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."[8]

Awards

Julianne Moore was nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress,[9] a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical,[10] and a Golden Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.[11] Moore won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performances in Magnolia, A Map of The World, and An Ideal Husband.[12]

Everett received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.[10]

The film was nominated for BAFTA awards in three categories: Oliver Parker for Best Adapted Screenplay, Caroline Harris for Best Costume Design, and Peter King for Best Make-up and Hair.[13]

References

  1. ↑ "An Ideal Husband (1999)". BBFC. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  2. ↑ Walker, Alexander (2005). Icons in the Fire: The Rise and Fall of Practically Everyone in the British Film Industry 1984-2000. Orion Books. p. 273. ISBN 978-0752864846.
  3. ↑ "An Ideal Husband". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  4. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: An Ideal Husband". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  5. ↑ Ebert, Roger (25 June 1999). "An Ideal Husband movie review (1999)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  6. ↑ Gleiberman, Owen (18 June 1999). "An Ideal Husband". EW.com. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  7. ↑ Holden, Stephen (18 June 1999). "'An Ideal Husband': Wilde as Sensitive Guy, So Wise and Insightful". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  8. 1 2 "An Ideal Husband". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  9. ↑ "An Ideal Husband (1999) Awards & Festivals". MUBI. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  10. 1 2 "Winners & Nominees 2000". www.goldenglobes.com. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  11. ↑ "2000 Satellite Awards". International Press Academy. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  12. ↑ "1999 Archives". National Board of Review. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  13. ↑ "Film in 2000 | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
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