Customer Reviews
the perfect social satire: one can not beat Oscar Wilde and Rupert Everett is the perfect incarnation - By: Klaus Meyer, 10 Jun 2008 
An Ideal Husband is an 1895 play by Oscar Wilde which revolves around blackmail & political corruption, & touches on the themes of public & private honour. The action is setin London,in "the present", & takes place over the course of three days. "Sooner or later," Wilde notes, "we shall all have to pay for what we do." But he adds that, "No one should be entirely judged by their past.
The movie is classy & captures uppper-class London to perfection. The language is wonderful & the lines really amusing like "Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious" or "Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear" or "To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.".
If you like Oscar Wilde you will enjoy this movie as Rupert Everett here as Lord Goring really is the best movie actor to portray an Oscar Wilde character. Cate Blanchett - Lady Gertrude Chiltern -,Minnie Driver - Miss Mabel Chiltern, Julianne Moore - Mrs. Laura Cheveley, Jeremy Northam - Sir Robert Chiltern & John Wood - Lord Caversham - give splendig performances too.Director Oliver Parker has created a real gem.
Seriously underrated film - By: fkoepping77, 11 Sep 2006 This is the sort of film that you really want to own. It loses nothing & gains detail the more often you watch it. Rupert Everett's lack of leading roles is a great loss to film, as he has the looks, timing & presence to carry off any number of romantic leads. I don't see what an actor's private proclivities have to do with what they portray on screen - Cary Grant being an interesting topicin that respect. Anyway, it's a fantastic script, a good plot, a serious messagein a fluffy film with a happy ending. Perfect Sunday-night viewing.
A really good film - By: Joe, 14 Jan 2006 
Marked down from 5 to 4 because of the poor sound production at times, but still worth watching nevertheless.
This is a film where the words are crucial, it is based on a play by Oscar Wilde after all! So why did they think it would be a good idea to have obtrusive 'background' music spilling into the foreground & nearly drowning out the speech? Not all the time, but enough to take the edge of an otherwise excellent film.
Forget a night at the theatre, just watch this, though now I've seen it I will take the opportunity to go & see the play if I can.
An Ideal dialogue film - By: Angus Bell, 26 Jul 2004 Having read the other reviews I have to slightly disagree with the overall tone - this is the perfect comedy of manners with outstanding performances by the whole cast. Jeremy Northam plays a gentle shy man conflicted by ambition & his morals whose wife Cate Blanchett puts him on a pedestal to worship. The subsequent revelation of the hypocrisy at the heart of their marriage is deliciously decorated by all the supporting cast who are manipulated by Rupert Everett enjoying the finest hour (or two!) of his career so far.
The DVD benefits enormously from a home cinema system as every word drips with double meaning! It is my favourite dialogue film of all time & far, far, better than The importance of being ....
Funny period piece - By: Marco Polo, 22 Dec 2002 A well-written romantic comedy by Oscar Wilde is given the "period" treatment by Oliver Parker ("The Importance of Being Earnest"), & survives. Wilde's witticisms, Rupert Everett, Cate Blanchett & the gorgeous costumes & decor make this worth watching. The story verges on the sentimental at times, but the acting saves it,in particular that of Rupert Everett & Cate Blanchett. Minnie Driver is fun to watch but does not quite fit the part; Julianne Moore does a flawless English accent (with elocution-lesson embouchure) but she was more fun to watchin "Magnolia"; Cate's husbandin the movie is completely forgettable; Everett's father is very funny, & the butler Peter Vaughan is worth watching too ("Remains of the Day", "Legend of 1900"). On the minus side, the sound on my DVD version wasin bad need of tweaking - the dialogue was whispered & I kept having to turn the volume up.
