6.6 /10 1 Votes
Directed by William P Cartlidge Written by William P Cartlige Initial release 19 May 1999 Producer Zygi Kamasa | 6.5/10 IMDb Produced by Daniel Figuero Music by Nigel Hess | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Starring James WilbySadie Frost Cast Similar Lady Windermere's Fan, The Importance of Being, A Good Woman, The Fan, The Weaker Sex | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An ideal husband 1999 trailer
An ideal husband official trailer 1999
Plot
While the film retains the premise of Wilde's play and much of the original dialogue, it updates the action to the present-day. The external scenes of the film were shot at various locations in the English 'home counties', principally in Buckinghamshire
Sir Robert Chiltern, a rich landowner, belongs to the English 'county set' and is a member of an (unnamed) local government authority somewhere north of London. Well-off and with a loving and trusting wife, his honour and very existence are threatened when Mrs. Laura Cheveley appears with evidence of a past misdeed of Sir Robert's. It transpires that Robert's wealth stems from insider trading concerning a proposed canal project at an unspecified location.
She attempts to blackmail Sir Robert into supporting the project - in which she has invested heavily - and in desperation, Sir Robert turns for help to his friend Lord Goring, an apparently idle philanderer. Goring knows the lady from years before.
After several varieties of machination, the story ends happily. Lord Goring marries Robert's sister Mabel, Mrs. Chevely is outsmarted, and Lady Chiltern retains her faith in her husband's honour and 'idealism'.