Ideal Husband, An

Variety Derek Elley

Shines like a freshly minted coin in Oliver Parker's adaptation.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's a movie of uncommon eloquence and elegance, acted by a truly gifted cast.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Makes the translation with all its wit, incisive dialogue and eccentric characters intact, and then some.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

What shakes the dust off this period piece is the vibrant acting.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Parker has shaped the play to make it more film-friendly and relevant, but he has done so with such subtlety you would have to be a Wilde authority even to notice.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Parker stays with and even streamlines Wilde's clever manipulations of betrayals and lies and plots and counterplots. Yet the film never feels stagy.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It all seems calculated to churn up excitement, a promise that there's lots of dazzle, glamour and intrigue to come. An Ideal Husband actually does deliver all those things, but mostly in a pleasurably understated way -- no need for the noisy signals.

Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman

It still sounds pretty fresh: politicians scratching backs, loose ladies threatening to talk, careers balanced tremulously on the line

New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo

The political, social, and linguistic adjustments Parker makes to this hugely entertaining Husband give it fresh relevance without betraying the original.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The two leading men, Northam and Everett, are smooth and charming.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Our familiarity with the actors, and their comfort in this period setting, lend the piece an unexpected air of naturalism.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The only problem I was faced with was trying to understand what exactly it was that I enjoyed, and how this movie differed from the play I'd read.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

We are amused. We are not sputtering into our teacups, but we are chortling lightly.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

His film is hardly memorable, but it's amusing enough for two hours, and it never panders or cloys.

Slate David Edelstein

The movie is diverting enough -- it's good fun -- but much of the genius is gone with the wind.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Life at the top has rarely looked or sounded more fabulously elegant.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's lavish, clever entertainment, a welcome opportunity to laugh without shame.

Film.com Robert Horton

The film version of this civilized beauty, captures the amusing gloss of the story but not the sense that something grave is going on beneath it all.

Film Threat Ron Wells

The film is not without its problems, some inherent to Wilde's original play.

Newsweek Andrea C. Basora

Beautifully appointed, fairly bursting with splendid sets and divine costumes, but it ultimately fails to capture the essence of Wilde's airy wit.

Austin Chronicle Hollis Chacona

This big-screen version of Wilde's stylish match of deceit and honor, loyalty and betrayal, is more parry than thrust.

Time Richard Corliss

An ideal play is degraded into an indolent film

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Director- writer Oliver Parker saps much of the juice from Wilde, slows the pace and directs his actors in an inappropriately naturalistic style.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Leans so heavily on its stars that their performances are marred by their emptiness.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Parker has boiled An Ideal Husband into a thuddingly unimaginative costume drama laden with frocks, riding crops, servile butlers and very good actors desperately treading water.