An
Ideal Husband
Rated PG-13
Opens June 25
http://www.miramax.com/
Oscar Wilde should never be boring, but curiously, director
Oliver Parker's adaptation of the playwright's An Ideal
Husband manages to be just that. In spite of its stellar
cast, lovely costumes, detailed direction and beautiful score,
the film seems to be missing something. Electricity? Soul?
Oddly, it is hard to figure out just what the weakness is.
The problem certainly isn't with Wilde's words.
An Ideal Husband was the least commercially successful
of Wilde's four major plays, but it was critically acclaimed
in 1895 nonetheless. Bernard Shaw, then the drama critic
for the Saturday Review wrote: "[Wilde] plays with
wit, with philosophy, with drama, with actors and audience,
with the whole theatre. Such a feat scandalized the Englishman,
who can no more play with wit and philosophy than he can
with a football or a cricket bat."
Perhaps this abounding sense of play is what the movie
is missing. It begins wonderfully enough. While Lord Goring
(a perfectly cast Rupert Everett) is primping his handsome
self in the mirror, he speaks the fateful Wilde words "to
love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."
Goring is a wealthy bachelor who, at 35 years of age, still
never wants to grow up or get married, despite the urgings
of his father and the women who desire him. The center of
the film, Goring is the revealer of all things hypocritical
in society: He is a civilized anarchist and, naturally,
the character with all the best lines. His eccentric position
is put to work when his best friend, Sir Robert (Jeremy
Northam), an eager politician of high moral standing, is
blackmailed by the devilish little Mrs. Cheveley (Julianne
Moore). She threatens to destroy his marriage, his career
and his perfect image with a blemish from his past. When
Sir Robert's wife, Lady Chiltern (Cate Blanchett), finds
out about the potential scandal, she is beside herself with
shame for her husband, whom she's placed on a pedestal.
The supposedly shallow Lord Goring then takes over the situation
and, through a sophisticated, screwy scheme, forces Lady
Chiltern to understand his ideology: that those who point
fingers are hypocrites, and that no life would be interesting
without indiscretions. What makes this play so fascinating
is that the expected moral (i.e. you cannot hide from your
past; you shouldn't lie about your purity) is not the point.
Instead, Wilde says that you shouldn't hold people to such
unattainable levels of perfection. Thus, it is not Sir Robert,
but his stuffy wife, who needs to learn something.
Lord Goring isn't simply a one-dimensional character with
a rapier wit and snazzy wardrobe. Goring is a beautiful
ode to not being trapped by the dictates of society. Wilde's
lines roll off Everett's tongue with effortless charm, as
if he was not only born to do Wilde, but also born in Wilde's
century. There is no self-consciousness to his performance
(unlike the other actors who, though good, sometimes seem
strained), and he is a joy to look at. His eyes go from
dark and cynical to soft and caring in a flash--it's a clever
metaphor used to convey that there is more to Goring than
meets the eye.
One wishes, however, that the film had as much life as
Everett does. Though Parker films everything with a light
comic touch and the scenes click by with precision, there
is something stifling in the film's atmosphere: reverence.
Oscar Wilde would probably agree: There is such a thing
as too much respect for the material.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Willamette Week | originally
published June 23, 1999
|
