If you are going to read or watch a play or movie written by Oscar Wilde you can't help but be impressed by all the witty one liners sprinkled throughout his writing. You can drive yourself crazy trying to remember his best quotes
The writer /director Oliver Parker has streamlined the play a bit for modern audiences and added a love scene but the plot remains the same. Sir Robert Chiltern would seem to be the perfect person. An incorruptible politician and faithful husband particularity worshiped by his wife Lady Gertrude Chiltern. Little does anyone know especially Lady Chiltern, Lord Chiltern has a dark secret in his past. Enter Mrs. Laura Cheveley who knows about Lord Chiltern's past and wants some political favors in exchange for her silence. Will Chiltern betray his principals to keep his good name or will he risk being exposed? That in a nutshell is the plot.
However in spite of this plot the real focus is on Chiltern's friend Lord Arthur Goring who is the consummate playboy. Lord Goring gets involved in helping Chiltern with the assistance of lots of amusing one liners that would make Woody Allen jealous. Here is a sample:
"My dear father, when one pays a visit, it is for the purpose of wasting other people's time and not one's own."
"Well, there's nothing I like more than to be congratulated, though invariably I find the pleasure immeasurably increased when I know what for."
"Excuse me a moment. I'm in the middle of my performance of the attentive son."
"My dear father, if we men married the women we deserved, we should have a very bad time of it.”
Well you get the idea. You can have all the great dialog in the world but it takes a great performance to put it over. In this case the actor Rupert Everett as Lord Goring steals the film even from gifted performers like Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore and Minnie Driver. As good as they are, they not a match for this guy.
The film is very elegant to look at and Oliver Parker doesn't draw things, out the film comes in at 97 minutes.
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