![]() |
Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver and Rupert Everett do the best in this Wilde mis-fire An Ideal Husband |
The plot has been freshened up and adjusted in places to
make for a more filmic narrative, but the principles are the same from the
play. Sir Robert Chiltern (Jeremy Northam) is a pillar of the establishment,
famed for his unshakeable dedication to principle and adored by his wife Lady
Gertrude (Cate Blanchett) who sees him as a paragon. But all that could be
shaken up when Mrs Laura Cheveley (Julianne Moore) re-enters his life, bringing
with her shocking revelations that could destroy Sir Robert. So he turns to
help to his best friend, the witty and debonair Lord Arthur Goring (Rupert
Everett), who is himself in love with Sir Robert’s sister Mabel (Minnie
Driver). How will events play out as they start to spiral out of control?
Oliver Parker’s film is cautious, safe and – for all that it
tries to open the play out with scenes in parks and Parliament – conservative
and safe. You can imagine Wilde himself would probably have wanted something a
little more daring had he been involved. As it is, things that work very well
on stage (the farcical elements of mistaken identity and a house with a
different character hiding behind every door) don’t really work on film. These
ideas are inherently theatrical and depend on the heightened unreality of
theatre – in the cold hard harshness of cinema, they feel out of place.
Put frankly, the big thing the play misses is the live
audience. You can imagine this cast going down an absolute storm in the West
End. The lines that demand a wink to the audience, bits of business that invite
laughter, just fall flat here. They are rendered lifeless by the demands of
being fit into a film, or having to take place in a world that seems real, when
Wilde’s plays are all about a sort of bizarre ultra-Victorian world of form
covering up a suggestive naughtiness. When the characters go and watch The
Importance of Being Earnest at the theatre (a sign of the film’s clumsy opening
out, and its lack of wit when left to its own devices) the dialogue style that
doesn’t really work in the “real world” of film suddenly feels perfectly
natural when we see people speak it on stage.
Parker’s film fails to bring any particular inspiration to
events. Instead it seems determined to package Wilde as a heritage product, the
sort of thing you can imagine people considering a safe thing for the whole
family to sit down and watch. There is no sense of cheek, sex or danger in this
like you can get in Wilde. Instead it’s all about attractive actors in
period-drama drawing rooms, going about their work with skill. All made to look
as pretty as possible with some lovely costumes. It’s Sunday tea-time viewing.
But despite this, some of those performances are spot on.
I’m not sure there is an actor alive today better suited to Wilde than Rupert
Everett. His imperious drawl, his sardonic wit, his louche manner (not to
mention his ability to suggest an illicit wickedness under the surface) make
him absolutely perfect. Everett has shown time and again – on film and in the
theatre – he has an affinity for the dryness needed for Wilde, as well as being
able to communicate the intelligence without smugness. All the successful
scenes of the movie revolve around him, and he invariably brings out the best
from his co-stars. He’s also far-and-away the funniest thing in the film.
The rest of the cast are more mixed. Cate Blanchett is the
stand-out in (sadly) the least interesting main role, the rather stuffy Lady
Gertrude (you wish you’d been able to see her let rip as the more wicked Mrs
Cheveley) – like Everett she “gets it”. Jeremy Northam also does excellent work
in the straight-man role of Sir Robert, but his characteristic dignity and
intelligence do very well in the role. Julianne Moore though seems oddly constrained
by the period setting as Mrs Cheveley (strange that she did this at the same
time as her superior work as a restrained Englishwoman in The End of the
Affair) while Minnie Driver lacks impact as Mabel. John Wood and Peter
Vaughan – two old pros from the theatre – bring much of the energy and wit in
supporting roles.
An Ideal Husband is fine. But watching it you’d
wonder what all the fuss about Wilde is about. And that can’t be a good thing.
If Wilde wrote a review of it, it would be funnier than anything in the film.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.