An Ideal Husband

The first twenty-five minutes stand out as possibly the worst in modern British film. Director/adapter William Cartlidge has treated Wilde's original with such reverence that he seems to have completely ignored the needs of a cinematic audience. Thankfully the quality of the direction and editing improves significantly after the first half hour, but by then the damage has been done. Of the actors, Prunella Scales and Robert Hardy wipe the floor with the rest of the cast every time they are on screen. The other exceptions are Jonathan Firth's Arthur and Karen Hayley's Mabel, who are given enough latitude to deliver their lines with the true comic sense which Wilde intended. The ostensible leads, James Wilby and Trevyn McDowell, are in comparison lacklustre and wooden. In an obvious attempt to eke every penny out a meagre budget, the play has been nominally updated to the 1990's, but in conjunction with the original script the effect is more of a badly script 1970s TV drama. True moments of comedy are few and far between, but when they arrive are highly amusing - a sign, maybe, that more judicious pruning of the rest of the play might have led to a better paced, more even film.

I watched the 1999 production with Jeremy Northam and Rupert Everett as the lead characters and the production was so good that I bought this DVD to see if there could be another different but as well good production or interpretation of a same script. I was so disappointed. Don't buy this and it is an absolute waste of time to watch. The cast was very poor with Sadie Frost being the worst. Her portrayal of the character cheapens the whole script, as if that Mrs.Chievely was some kind of a prostitute, or indecent woman. She has a very bad mannerism esp. in speaking her lines. I agree with another reviewer that this seems more like a low budget TV drama, instead of being a movie.

While I enjoy Wilde in all the ways a man is supposed to, I'd dare say that there are times when even his brilliance cannot compensate the blunders of others.

This being said, I'll be concise: Mr. Cartlidge's adaptation of Wilde's play takes itself far too serious to work and while this is bearable in itself, the questionable caliber of the actors' performances adds another tedious and gross layer upon an otherwise totally lovable affair. The result is an even, blunt and only partly entertaining production which retains some of its initial values, but misses out on its potential. I do not doubt that any work of art can have unlimited interpretations (although I do not agree to this conception because we are, most unfortunately, limited, pitiful creatures), but only some are rewarding for the masses, with this being a rather lukewarm experience.

Having acted in this film I'd just like to say what a marvellous place it was for the short time we were there. Our scene was at Slough Town Hall, one of the first of the film. It was a large set with many extras, all the actors were there except Prunella Scales and Robert Hardy which was just as well as we had their trailers! The enormous set was made up for the day to look directly as us, the band Portabello (often spelt Portobello, even in the credits!). We had to mime four songs over and over again in their entirety while everyone waltzed to them. It was a great day and we met the whole cast, and I was even interviewed by Melanie Sykes of Channel 4.

I went to the premier in London and was treated as a member of the cast by the cast and media – our scenes start with my face filling the screen for a few seconds before panning out to see the band, a very proud moment for my mother who was there with me.

Pity it turned out the way it did, it's not a bad film but it has its flaws. Our manager at the time neglected to get a royalty worked out so the 4 song soundtrack and air time didn't return us any favours. I had to buy a copy from Amazon.

Robert Minter, Portabello, soundcloud.com/tags/Robert%20Minter