This tale of political intrigue based on Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedy of manners may no longer be a scandalous cause célèbre, yet this amusing diversion retains its power to disconcert. While it shares the wit and wisdom of Alexander Korda's 1947 version, writer/director Oliver Parker's adaptation has the additional advantage of impeccable casting. Rupert Everett is the standout here as philandering man-about-town Arthur Goring, though Cate Blanchett, Minnie Driver, Julianne Moore and Jeremy Northam - as the married government minister who requires Everett's aid against a scheming blackmailer - also give splendid performances. It's visually spot on, too, even if Parker's energetic opening out of the action occasionally seems a little excessive.

Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful government minister, well-off and with a loving wife. All this is threatened when Mrs Cheveley appears in London with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns for help to his friend Lord Goring, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father. Goring knows the lady of old, and, for him, takes the whole thing pretty seriously.