blanche-2 Jeremy Northam is "An Ideal Husband" who's about to get his clock cleaned by Julianne Moore in this gorgeous rendition of Oscar Wilde's play, also starring Rupert Everett, Cate Blanchett, and Minnie Driver.Northam is Sir Robert Chiltern, happily married to his lovely and adoring wife, Lady Gertrude (Blanchett) and guardian to his unmarried sister Mabel (Driver). He is in Parliament and opposed to an Argentine canal project. Then he is visited by Mrs. Laura Cheveley (Moore) who tries to blackmail him into approving the project. She knows how he gained his wealth and position. If his wife finds out, she'll be devastated. In desperation, he turns to his bachelor friend Lord Arthur Goring (Everett) for help. Goring attempts to help, and for a while, it looks like he made things worse.This witty comedy is given wonderful direction by Oliver Parker, and the production is sumptuous. The actors all underplay, letting the brilliance of the material come through. Especially funny is the scene where everyone is in a different room of Lord Goring's house, with no one aware that the other is present. Most times, you'd see a scene like this with the host a frazzled mess, running around, trying to keep everyone quiet and hidden. Here, Everett never changes his expression and is unflappable, making the situation funnier.Highly recommended as the way a classic play should be filmed.

Framescourer Parker's adaptation follows the tradition of source author Wilde: the glamour, grace, charm and delight of moneyed society mask a viper's pit of self-interest, and personal and political manipulation. Rupert Everett is born into roles of this period and provenance with his chiselled charm and diverting ease with women and men alike. The trio of women with whom he consorts as if they were, alternately, courtesans and diplomats, are superb. Julianne Moore and Cate Blanchett might be relied on to be delicate but deadly damsels but I was pleased to see that Minnie Driver could not only hold her own but also create and occupy a different role from the other two.This is not a one-trick picture with people simply being suffocatingly courteous and then sticking in the knife but populated with real characters creating a real sense of a fragile surface patina to their behaviour, as at risk as the more substantial lives which it represents. Parker directs with a discreet hand and the production is beautifully designed. 6/10

virginiabrittain How refreshing to find a movie for grown-ups! Did anyone else notice that Minnie Driver, in the role of Mabel, was doing a wonderful Audrey Hepburn impression throughout the movie? I think she is so underrated. She has such amazing range, whether playing poignant, comic, vulgar/comic, delicate,or tragic, she's always believable and fun/fascinating to watch. I also loved Rupert Everett, who struck just the right note. The cast must all have relished being able to speak such delicious dialogue. Of course the lush costumes and sets were impeccable, and created the perfect setting. The intricacies of the plot make a reviewing advisable and would certainly reward the viewer with lines of dialog and character interplay missed the first time around.

vitaleralphlouis Here was a chance not just to see a movie aimed at grown-ups but to see CATE BLANCHETT as well. Truthfully, I enjoy more contemporary settings for English movies and Cate was certainly more appealing covered with western grit and grime in THE MISSING than covered from head to toe in formal clothes. This Oscar Wilde comedy did not yield so much as a chuckle, but as a story it was moderately interesting. I had to keep in mind their excesses and mannerisms were part of the alleged comedy.When my mind wandered away from the inadequate storyline, I was thinking that the England and the English upper class pictured herein were not much to my liking, but it was people like this that ran the Empire at the time when England ruled most of the world. Both Iran and Iraq, as well as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, were under British control --- and life was more peaceful for us all.