A diamond cast fail to sparkle in the most complicated of Wilde's plays.
Victim of its own theatricality, everything about this film conspires
to self-destruction: the lavish but static sets, the accents, and
above all the one-dimensionality of the characters. The story of a
politician, Lord Chiltern, mired in financial scandal by former
mistress Mrs Cheveley is apposite, but the decent Lord Chiltern and
dull Lady Chiltern (Northam and Blanchett) are rather less
contemporary looking than femme fatale Mrs Chevely (Moore, terribly
miscast), or bachelor boy Lord Goring (Everett, having enormous fun)
marrying fag hag Mabel (Driver) to silence his father.
