An Ideal Husband

(Miramax)

Oliver Parker's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's most poignant play is as overstuffed and inert as the furniture. Jeremy Northam's Sir Robert Chiltern is a rising MP with an adoring wife (Cate Blanchett) -- which makes the intrusion of suave, soiled Mrs. Cheveley (Julianne Moore) and her blackmailing letter all the more galling. As the Wilde persona, Rupert Everett gets the best lines (wasted on Minnie Driver in her ungainly turn as Sir Robert's spunky, smitten sister), but they're thinly scattered about the carriages, potted palms, and splendid heliotrope gowns that pass for style.