IDEAL HUSBAND, AN/ **1/2

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An Ideal Husband

**1/2

Cinema Releases - April 16, 1999

Rated on a 4-star scale. UK/USA. Written and directed by Oliver Parker; from the play by Oscar Wilde. Starring Jeremy Northam, Cate Blanchett, Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore, Minnie Driver.

Oliver Parker's "An Ideal Husband" is a true 6-on-10 movie. It kept making me wonder if I was enjoying it. The frustration of this experience is that I feel guilty about not recommending it, and I'd feel just as guilty if I did recommend it.

Based on Oscar Wilde's play, the main character is Robert Chiltern (Jeremy Northam), a rising star of a politician, viewed as squeaky clean by all, including wonderfully supportive wife Gertrude (Cate Blanchett) and slothful best friend Arthur Goring (Rupert Everett). With aspirations of a cabinet seat, the last thing he needs is the position he's finding himself in with one of Goring's old flames, nasty piece of work Mrs. Cheveley (Julianne Moore). She wants him to change his political stance on a controversial money-making scheme, and in rebuttal of his refusal, blackmails him with the threat of scandal -- she possesses evidence of a corrupt misstep that kicked off his career, and could end it.

Chiltern seems the ideal husband to Gertrude, and as such, does not want to tell her about his dilemma. But secretive behaviour tests the limits of his cool, and he risks blowing his own cover. While all this is happening, his wide-eyed younger sister Mabel (Minnie Driver) is falling in love with Goring, seeing him as an ideal husband, despite his former status as her verbal sparring partner.

Parker, who adapted and directed, doesn't seem to realise how a lot of the stuff propelling many individual scenes, or, indeed, the plot in "An Ideal Husband", has become cliché since Wilde's time. But this hardly seems to matter, when he makes the film look and feel so pleasant, and wisely keeps a lot of the original dialogue. The appealing leads deliver it well, especially Everett, who is hilarious in finding the right note with every one of his detached, sarcastic bon mots. Jeremy Northam is sound as the one totally serious character, and Minnie Driver's body language is sexy enough to make her presence more than welcome. Cate Blanchett -- tender, sympathetic and completely convincing as Gertrude -- has picked a good follow-up role to her passionate, BAFTA-winning turn in "Elizabeth", and only Julianne Moore is over-the-top, making her villain too annoying.

The biggest problem with "An Ideal Husband" is that Parker has opened it up too much. It didn't need to operate in as few as three locations, like the play does, but a moderately small scope would still have been helpful. The more things happening in each single place, the greater the farce level would be, and the more attention one could sustain. The comedy is still pretty funny and the drama is still pretty involving, but the elements seem like fractions that don't add up to a bigger number, never really soaring higher than basic amusement level.

Let me stress again, however, that this basic amusement level is clearly established. I cannot, in good conscience, seriously urge you to spend time and money on "An Ideal Husband", but doing so may still result in a nice experience.

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