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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Ideal Husband, An

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Oliver Parker
Oscar Wilde (play)
Directed by: Oliver Parker
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 18, 1999
DVD: April 3, 2001
Running Time: 97 minutes,
Origin: UK / USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for brief sensuality/nudity
Starring Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver, Rupert Everett, Julianne Moore, and Jeremy Northam
An adaptation of Oscar Wilde's romantic social satire. (Miramax)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Variety Derek Elley
Shines like a freshly minted coin in Oliver Parker's adaptation.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's a movie of uncommon eloquence and elegance, acted by a truly gifted cast.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Makes the translation with all its wit, incisive dialogue and eccentric characters intact, and then some.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
What shakes the dust off this period piece is the vibrant acting.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman
It still sounds pretty fresh: politicians scratching backs, loose ladies threatening to talk, careers balanced tremulously on the line
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The two leading men, Northam and Everett, are smooth and charming.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
We are amused. We are not sputtering into our teacups, but we are chortling lightly.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Amy Taubin
His film is hardly memorable, but it's amusing enough for two hours, and it never panders or cloys.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
The movie is diverting enough -- it's good fun -- but much of the genius is gone with the wind.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Life at the top has rarely looked or sounded more fabulously elegant.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
It's lavish, clever entertainment, a welcome opportunity to laugh without shame.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
The film is not without its problems, some inherent to Wilde's original play.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
Leans so heavily on its stars that their performances are marred by their emptiness.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Dick M. gave it a7:
I had never heard of this film even though I am a movie nut but I recorded it because I found Julianne Moore's name in the cast. I am still congratulating me on my instincts or my good luck. It was great fun all the way. Leave it to the Brits.
