An Ideal Husband

I love this movie. Always have. Now I can watch it anytime, since I couldn't find it on any streaming service like - anywhere.

The. Funniest. Movie.!! I used to be able to stream this movie, but for some reason can't find it online anywhere anymore. Dvd to the rescue. Dvd worked great, no issues.

A great movie! Don't hold back purchasing because it's old.....fantastic cast, sophisticated story line, beautiful sets and costumes.....you will love it.

This is a brilliantly written play with lots of witty and satirical content. The cast and the acting is suburb. I have watched it several times in the past few years and I always find something subtle and new that I missed before. Previously I had this title on VHS. The DVD is better quality and navigation is easier with no rewinding! I have one small complaint though. It has no subtitles at all. The VHS version did not either. The script is so tight and well written that I would like to be able to read along and not miss a word. Alas, not on this DVD.

Oliver Parker's film of Oscar Wilde's "An Ideal Husband" demonstrates that Wilde's epigrams have lost none of their witty sting, and that his observations on society remain as profound and sagacious as they were more than a hundred years ago. Societal customs and mores may have changed enormously, but human nature has not. Wilde's themes of political skulduggery and financial swindling at the highest levels of society are all the more pertinent today, and the theme of dark secrets between men and women is as old as Aristophanes and as new as the latest rap song. All of this roils beneath the elegant, creamy surface of Wilde's story, brought to life in this film by a sterling cast amid the most sumptuous photography, costumes and set design imaginable. Unfortunately, the themes of dark secrets and societal hypocrisy had enormous echoes in Wilde's own life. Parker creates a deep poignancy in the film in a scene portraying Wilde himself taking a bow after a rapturously received performance of "The Importance of Being Earnest." A caption at the beginning of the film tells us the action takes place during the London social season of 1895, which in real life was the exact time Wilde was sent to Reading Gaol. Wilde's appearance in the film can only be seen as a lament for what might have been, if Wilde had never met Bosie or read Queensberry's card. The video transfer on the DVD is crisp and beautiful; however, there is very little in the way of extras, except for a short featurette about the making of the film. In the featurette, however, there is an amusing glimpse of Rupert Everett filming a scene in which his feet apparently would not be visible in the finished film. He is wearing impeccable white tie...and running shoes.

Wit, style, and an understated sense of comedy make The Ideal Husband a film every library should include. Rupert Everett as Lord Goring is idle, rich, and devastatingly handsome -- and, he is single. Every woman in London should be lined up outside his door, but then, that would be a Hollywood movie instead of a perfect British comedy of errors. Oscar Wilde had no match when it came to writing drawing room comedy about the foibles of the class conscious Brits in the 19th century. This film gives a fine lesson of how comedy does not have to be falling down slapstick nor cretin teenage fart humor to be successful on screen. It is elegant and riotous. Jeremy Notham is Robert, an ambitious and rising politician with a secret in his past. Cate Blanchett as Gertrude, his Lady wife is above reproach with an inflexible sense of self-richousness of others. With Minnie Driver and American Julianne Moore superbly cast against type in the role of the the dubious Mrs. Cheevly, this cast perfectly translates Wilde's humor to screen. It is Rupert Everett however, who carries the film with a performance that should have won him more recognition than it did. Overall, The Ideal Husband is one of the best ensemble performances of the year. Visual settings convey the Victorian sensibility without squeeky clean idealism that plagues many of the Ivory/Merchant productions. I saw this film in the theater when it first opened and knew then it was going to be successful because it presented a story we all could identify with even after a century. Good writing never goes out of style. Great writing is forever. Well done, Oscar!

Pretty good video and audio quality, and I love the movie averall.

I hope that I am not the only one to notice this. Nowhere in Amazon's description of this screenplay there any mention of who wrote the it. And that was Oscar Wilde. What kind of troglodyte sells the adaptation of a play without crediting the person who wrote it? Are we supposed to think that this brilliant plotting and characterization, the superb wit of the dialogue simply sprouted from some anonymous script writer's pen? Maybe next we can watch Midsummer Night's Dream without a mention of Shakespeare. Wilde was a brilliant man and a brilliant playwright, and it is disheartening to see the commercial exploitation of his genius without so much as a mention of his name. I'd like to add that this adaption is brilliant, the acting is superb, and the sets are gorgeous. It is, thanks to Wilde, an absolutely ideal comedy. Couldn't be much better. We will watch it again.

Sowohl das weibliche Trio Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver und Julianne Moore als auch Rupert Everett überzeugen voll und ganz. Zugegeben wirkt die Handlung an einigen wenigen Stellen etwas hölzern, doch liegt das nicht an den Schauspielern. Ich meine eher bei einem Film sollte man nicht zu sehr das Bühnenbild einer Theateraufführung herausschmecken, oder das Entlangtasten an einem roten Faden, auch wenn dieser von Oskar Wilde stammt. Vielleicht hätte etwas mehr Mut, Lockerheit und Eigeninterpretation gut getan oder eher geschadet, so richtig schlüssig bin ich mir da leider auch nicht. Denn im Großen und Ganzen überzeugen Kostüme, Schauspieler und Dialoge.

I'll be honest, I could watch Rupert Everett reading the phone book for 90 minutes and would probably give it five stars. However this is a perfect film for him and it's good to see him in a leading role rather than a gay cameo (sounds like a great tribute band...) for once. On the flip side, Jeremy Northam is colourless and Minnie Driver seems very uncomfortable in her role (try Grosse Pointe Blank to see how good she is when she's well cast), and like so many films (cf. My Best Friend's Wedding) it does flag a bit when Everett is off screen. Julianne Moore does an English accent so much these days I'm always faintly surprised to hear her speaking American and confusingly makes a more convincing Englishwoman than Driver. However it's Rupert Everett's film through and through. Wilde's words are the words he was born to speak and it's very, very funny - director Oliver Parker has managed to successfully transfer a play to the big screen, a challenge many experienced directors have failed. Can't wait to see him reunite Rupert Everett with his Another Country co-star Colin Firth in The Importance of Being Earnest - but will tape my sides up in advance in case they split...

love this movie but ordered german version by mistake!!!. check carefully before you order! lol!

Adaptation d'une pièce de théâtre éponyme d'Oscar Wilde. Par certain côtés c'est un vaudeville, par certains autres une analyse féroce des relations entre hommes et femmes dans une société bien pensante de la fin du XIXème. Une société anglaise qui tient à ses valeurs, honnêteté, amour chevaleresque, courtoisie, probité des politiques... Au milieu de ses grands sentiments que salue Oscar Wilde avec panache, les failles du systèmes, l'envers du décor...la mesquinerie, le chantage, les petites cachoterie, la frivolité...mais le triomphe revient à l'Amour. Et probablement encore plus à l'Amitié entre deux hommes Arthur, Lord Gorhing et Sir Robert...car le mari idéal Sir Robert (?) a quelques faiblesses, ou Lord Gorhing (?) peu enclin au mariage, témoignent tous deux d'un dévouement amical sans mesure. Une femme exécrable, digne de Madame de Mertheuil des liaisons dangereuses, semble dominer le monde féminin, une diablesse, que l'on ne donne pas gagnante.... La reconstitution des salons anglais , des intérieurs, des salles du parlement est époustouflante, et les costumes splendides. Les acteurs masculins sont justes, émouvants et espiègles à la fois en particulier Ruppert Everett et Jeremy Northam. les Dames délicieuses... Le Dvd n'offre ni de VF ni de sous-titres français, des sous-titres anglais sont possibles (pour malentendants)

La version filmée de l'oeuvre d'Oscar Wilde est très ... anglaise, et toute cette ambiance feutrée, bien élevée, polie, dans un décor typiquement anglais est superbement rendue par des acteurs (connus ou non)so british. Et bien que le sous-titrage du film se fasse en anglais, c'est très facile à comprendre et à apprécier. A voir et à revoir