An Ideal Husband (1999)

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.... See full summary »

Director:

Oliver Parker

Writers:

Oscar Wilde (play), Oliver Parker (screenplay)

Stars:

Peter Vaughan, Rupert Everett, Minnie Driver

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 5 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Vaughan	...	Phipps
Rupert Everett	...	Lord Arthur Goring
Minnie Driver	...	Miss Mabel Chiltern
Cate Blanchett	...	Lady Gertrude Chiltern
Ben Pullen	...	Tommy Trafford
Marsha Fitzalan	...	Countess
Julianne Moore	...	Mrs. Laura Cheveley
Lindsay Duncan	...	Lady Markby
Neville Phillips	...	Mason
John Wood	...	Lord Caversham
Jeremy Northam	...	Sir Robert Chiltern
Nickolas Grace	...	Vicomte de Nanjac
Simon Russell Beale	...	Sir Edward
Anna Patrick	...	Miss Danvers
Delia Lindsay	...	Lady Basildon

Storyline

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 for help to his friend Lord Goring, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father. Goring knows the lady of old, and, for him, takes the whole thing pretty seriously.

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Plot Keywords:

social satire | flirting | blackmail | husband wife relationship | high society | 

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Taglines:

He just doesn't know it yet.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief sensuality/nudity

Details

Official Sites:

Miramax [us] Official site

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 June 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Un mari idéal

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$14,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$198,802 (USA) (18 June 1999)

Gross:

$18,535,191 (USA) (1 October 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arts Council of England, Canal+, Fragile Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

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.

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Goofs

The Speaker is shown calling MPs to speak by naming their constituency ("The Honourable Member for Witney" etc). British MPs do address each other in this way, but the Speaker calls MPs to speak by naming them personally.

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Quotes

Lady Markby: And you know, I can't help feeling that this disturbing new thing, this higher education of women, will deal a terrible blow to happy married life.
Laura: The higher education of men is what I should like to see. Men need it so sadly.
Lady Markby: They do, dear. But I'm afraid such a scheme would be quite unpractical. I don't think man has much capacity for development. He has got as far as he can, and that is not far, is it?

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Crazy Credits

The credits list Oliver Parker, the director, as playing "Bunbury", one of the gentlemen that is seen playing cards with Lord Goring in the Men's Club when Lord Chiltern arrives. Bunbury is also a never-seen character in "The Importance of Being Earnest", the play which is performed in the background of several scenes of this film.

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Connections

Version of An Ideal Husband (2000)

User Reviews

Wit, depth and beauty - Will Wilde follow Shakespeare to Hollywood?

As I left this movie, someone said "How nice to see an intelligent movie!"

The risk going in was that it would be ONLY an intelligent - or at least clever - piece, all period manners and costumes. In fact, with all the Oscar Wilde wit which sounds wonderfully fresh here, there are also rich moments of emotional depth throughout this amusing but also quite moving film.

One theme here - touching in hindsight - is how little it can take to destroy a reputation - Wilde was later to have some of the most painful possible firsthand experience of this. But the central question here, which anchors the humor and beauty that decorate it, is the cost of rigorous, even rigid, honesty. And the growth of the central characters on this point shines through, even through the dance of wit and farce.

Underpinning this is a surprising faith in human nobility, quite in contrast to the ironic persona Wilde maintained. It struck me while watching it both that Wilde had very French characteristics - a continental finesse, the love of repartee - and yet was profoundly an English writer by virtue of his faith in fair play and the bonds of (platonic) male friendship.

In fact, Lord Goring, whose world-weary ways make him something of a surrogate for Wilde, is a distant cousin to Sidney Carton in coming to the defense of a 'nobler' friend even at great (possible) sacrifice to himself. His very lack of seriousness is what makes his efforts on behalf of his friends so moving.

With this, the pure visual beauty of actors like Cate Blanchett and Rupert Everett, matched by sumptuous costumes and sets, adds a sensuous element which, in a lesser film, might have dominated the movie. They, with Minnie Driver in cheeky comic form and Julianne Moore sweetly evil and superbly English, make it a delight both to watch and to savor later as tart food for thought.