BEFORE: And just like that, this Movie Year is 1/6 over already. I wish I could say the same about the pandemic, but come on, nobody really knows. The stats are getting better every day, but I think every time we relax about that then people go out, stop wearing masks, go to some crazy event like the Super Bowl or Friday night dinner in a restaurant, and this causes another variant to develop, then we're right back where we started. Again. I saw the effects the other day of the Omicron wave on Manhattan restaurants, three places where I regularly got coffee or snacks were closed down or were in the process of being replaced by new pizza places or dumpling restaurants. I'm all for ethnic food diversity, but I also need places that make donuts or serve coffee. One was a deli with the second biggest set of steam tables I've ever seen in Manhattan - I didn't buy lunch there, but I'm sure a lot of people did, where will they all eat now?
More to the point, when will people start going to the movies again in large groups, or will they never do that again? I worked a screening last night that had TWO people in the audience, I mean, is that even worth it? Is that going to get the film two more Oscar votes, and will that put this film over the top for Best Picture? I kind of doubt that. Maybe movie theaters are just done, now that everybody can see every film at home just by pushing a button. OK, maybe not EVERY film, because if there's one thing I've proven, it's that for some reason, every film ever made is still not available at any given time. Shouldn't they all be? Or at least just the good ones? How about just the ones I want to see, I'll settle for that.
Lindsay Duncan carries over from "Mansfield Park".
THE PLOT: In London, 1895, Cabinet minister Sir Chiltern and bachelor Lord Goring are victims of scheming women.
AFTER: Well, from Jane Austen I'm segueing over to Oscar Wilde. Still in the U.K., just moving fast forward a few decades, 1814 to 1895. Still no fun to be found in England - well, maybe Oscar Wilde had a bit of fun, but in his own way. I think he got in some trouble for it, too. But watching these two films back-to-back has allowed me to discover the difference between the works of Austen and Wilde - in Jane Austen novels, the relationships of women are always being disrupted by scheming, manipulative men, while in Wilde's stories, the relationships of men were always being disrupted by scheming, manipulative women. That's pretty telling, it seems maybe neither author got along very well with the other gender, if they were always portraying them as the villainous types in their stories. Make of that what you will.
The two male leads in "An Ideal Husband" aren't exactly saints, or proper gentlemen, but they do each enjoy a number of comforts - wealth, a certain degree of power, and I'm assuming a fair amount of leisure time. Sir Chiltern is married and has a position as a government minister (Umm, I don't understand British government or Parliament, it's way too confusing) but there's a scandal looming if anyone should find out HOW he got his position, he helped cover up some other minister's corruption in the past. Lord Goring is a confirmed bachelor (umm, that meant something different back then, not like now) who likes the ladies, he just doesn't want to marry one. His ex-fiancée, Laura Cheveley, has been through two bad husbands and is, for some reason, looking for another one. She's got a letter that's evidence of Chiltern's misdeeds, and is trying to leverage it to get back together with Goring. Chiltern's wife is apparently also trying to get together with Goring, umm, I think, and also Sir Chiltern's younger sister is trying to date him, but she keeps getting stood up.
It's not really a bedroom farce, that wouldn't be proper, too early in British history for that, but it does become a sort of "drawing room farce", where a bit of confusion about who's come to call and who's waiting in WHICH room to meet with Goring leads to this comedy of errors, and then there are schemes within schemes that lead to Lady Cheveley making a wager with Lord Goring - if Chiltern can be blackmailed into supporting her boondoggle project, a canal to be built in Argentina, then she'll hand over the letter. But, if he doesn't support the project, then Goring will marry Lady Cheveley. I think she wins either way, because if the canal gets funded, then she's behind the project and she gets money, but if the canal doesn't get funded, then she marries Goring and he gets his inheritance, so therefore she gets money. Can you really blame women in 1895 London for trying to game the patriarchal system? I mean, what were they supposed to do, get a job? Run for Parliament? That was unheard of at the time.
This film apparently changed a few details, originally in the novel there wasn't a bet for Lord Goring's engagement, it was a straight exchange - the letter for his hand. And then there was a whole bit with a stolen diamond brooch that isn't even in this version. But the rest seems to be more or less the same, the realization that nobody is perfect, so there's no real "Ideal Husband" after all. I was just about to say that I think I've covered the major works of Oscar Wilde now, but that simply can't be true. In fact, that film "Easy Virtue" that I dropped from this year's romance chain is an Oscar Wilde story, and I've never seen a proper adaptation of "The Picture of Dorian Gray", I should probably seek one out. Ah, there's a 2009 version available on Amazon Prime, let me just add that to my list. It just never ends, does it?
Also starring Cate Blanchett (last seen in "Spielberg"), Minnie Driver (last seen in "The Wilde Wedding"), Rupert Everett (last seen in "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children"), Julianne Moore (last seen in "The Woman in the Window"), Jeremy Northam (last seen in "Official Secrets"), John Wood (last seen in "Heartburn"), Peter Vaughan (last seen in "Death at a Funeral" (2007)), Ben Pullen, Marsha Fitzalan (last seen in "The Importance of Being Earnest"), Neville Phillips (last seen in "101 Dalmatians"), Nickolas Grace (last seen in "The Lost City of Z"), Simon Russell Beale (last seen in "Operation Finale"), Anna Patrick, Delia Lindsay, Denise Stephenson, Charles Edwards (also carrying over from "Mansfield Park"), Nancy Carroll (last seen in "Iris"), Andy Harrison, Jill Balcon, Janet Henfrey (last seen in "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"), Toby Robertson, Michael Culkin (last seen in "Mortdecai"), Oliver Parker, Doug Bradley, Stephen May, Jeroen Krabbé (last seen in "Ever After: A Cinderella Story"), Oliver Ford Davies (last seen in "Christopher Robin").
RATING: 5 out of 10 Whistler paintings at the art exhibition
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