The Importance of Being Earnest

Rating:
Summary: The wages of pride
Review: I cannot imagine a better cast for this film. That makes this dreadful travesty of Oscar Wilde's play even more appalling. Oliver Parker's hubris in thinking that he can improve on Oscar Wilde and one of the finest comedies in the English language is an outrage. He has cut some of Wilde's best lines, only to replace them with idiotic dream sequences, a ridiculous subplot involving Algernon's creditors, and even a hot-air ballon ride. Further, the production is heavy-handed and the music is just wrong.

All this pales in comparison to the overwhelming vulgarity of the scene in which Gwendolyn gets a tattoo, and fabricating a past as a chorus girl for Lady Bracknell. Mr. Parker clearly understands neither the characters, the play, nor Mr. Wilde himself. I can only conclude that his credit on An Ideal Husband is in error.

It is one thing to dig up Mr. Wilde's bones, but Mr. Parker has gnawed on them. He should be sentenced to a term in Reading Gaol for his overweening presumption and prohibited, by force if necessary, from ever again making another film.

Rating:
Summary: Fairly decent version of great Oscar Wilde play
Review: Oscar Wilde's play, "The Importance of Being Earnest", is arguably the late 19th Century's best comedy of manners. The newest film version is pleasant and enjoyable, but it lacks much of the comic timing so necessary to giving proper delivery of Wilde's witty, acerbic lines. Admittedly, the work has lost some of its punch over the years because society has changed so much. The class system may not have entirely disappeared, but it has certainly mutated. Perhaps the movie would have been funnier had the filmmakers put more emphasis on the characters' eccentricities and less on their quaintness.

Algy and Jack [Rupert Everett and Colin Firth] are good friends. Algy is an upper-class gentleman with no money, and Jack is a middleclass guy with lots of it. In pursuit of women, Jack uses a different name in the city, while Algy calls himself something else in the country. Algy wants Gwendolyn [Francis O'Connor], but he isn't good enough to suit her mother, Lady Bracknell [Judi Dench]. Jack is after Cecily [Reese Witherspoon], whose guardian happens to be Algy. Much trickery, game playing and confusion results, right up to the requisite happy ending.

The charming, talented cast is obviously having a grand time. If Oscar Parker's direction had been sharper, the audience would be having a grand time, too, rather than merely a good one.

Rating:
Summary: A fun flick
Review: Colin Firth is fascinating in this role, as main character Jack Worthing, and Judy Dench is just the mother-in-law you might want to avoid -- in fact, all the acting is good. The only thing that prevented me giving it five stars was that the overall movie just wasn't as good as its predecessor, "An Ideal Husband." The problem isn't with the cast or production team -- it's with Oscar Wilde himself, who wrote a great story in "An Ideal Husband" and a good story in "The Importance of Being Earnest."

Regardless, I eagerly await the next movie based on one of his short stories...

Rating:
Summary: One star for Rupert Everette
Review: Two film versions of Oscar Wilde's IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST are now available on DVD. If you know nothing of the play or subsequent movie versions of the play, you might wonder, which is best? Which should I buy? Should I buy both of them?

The version of EARNEST released in 1952 stars Michael Redgrave as Worthing (father of Lynn, Vanessa, and Colin Redgrave; grandfather of Miranda and Natasha Richardson, etc.), Dame Edith Evans as Aunt Augusta, Joan Greenwood as Gwendolyn, Margaret Rutherford as the woeful governess, and several other fine stage actors of 1950s England.

The 1952 version is 95 minutes long and presented as a stage play with a few outdoors settings. If you want to see the play as Wilde probably meant it to be seen, this version is the one to buy. The dialogue is snappy and smart, the humor dry and witty, the actors are filled with zest. Not only that, but the 1952 version is a Criterion DVD with 'digital transfer' and historical notes.

The second version of EARNEST, released in theaters a year or two ago, and listed here, stars Colin Firth as Worthing, Rupert Everett as Algeron, Frances O'Conner as Gwendolyn, Dame Judi Dench as Aunt Augusta, Anna Massey in the Margaret Rutherford role, Reese Witherspoon as Cecily, and Edward Fox as Algeron's underpaid manservant. If Wilde knows about this version, he is probably spinning in his grave in Pere Lachaise.

The dialogue (Wilde wrote) is virtually the same in both films, and the actors for the most part are great actors, but something has gone missing from this version. I love Colin Firth, but he is dismal as Worthing. I am ambivalent about Everett but he is the best thing in the newer film (and why I gave it one star). Anna Massey is fine, I loved her as George Sand's mother in IMPROMPTU, but after seeing Margaret Rutherford play the role of the wayward nanny-turned-tutor she's pathetic.

The new EARNEST plays like an old record on warped speed compared with the Michael Redgrave film. Wilde's witty dialogue moves so slowly, the repartee is as flat as fallen souffle. On top of that, what is a knight in armor doing in this play? Did the screen play call for this bit of nonsense or did the director decide to borrow elements from a few other films! For example, in several scenes, Firth (Worthing) gives an almost repeat performance of scenes from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. I could forgive the ripoff of P&P in BRIDGET JONES because that film is a satire on P&P, but in EARNEST it simply doesn't work.

The action in the newer version is V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W compared with the Criterion version. Did the director slow the action because he thought "monolingual" Americans would understand the words better?? How stupid, GOSFORD PARK did just fine. Those of us who patronize British films and the BBC understand British accents --
and many of us can identify accents by class and locale. Gee whiz, if you can follow the dialogue in East Enders you can follow anything.

If you're a drama student and can afford both versions, buy both versions. In this case actions do speak louder than words and you can discover for yourself that great script and actors aren't the only ingredients in a good film-the director matters.

Rating:
Summary: If you like every other movie like this one...
Review: ...you definitely aren't me. This movie was forced upon me by an airline, who after showing the trailer got so few people buying headphones to hear the full feature, they just started giving them away. Honestly, after the first 10 minutes, I and the passanger I was flying with found it to be a better film without headphones and instead engaging in a well-recieved MST3k remake.

Basically, if you like every other movie about a bunch of rich people who sit around in Victorian England going on about how smug their lives are, where the sole exsistance of the universe is their cute-little-relationships-and-suggestive-cheating-oh-no prim & proper stuff, you'll probably love this movie. If your like me, you'll wish you could buy the DVD from the airline and set it on fire, just so noone ever has to see it again.

You know it's sad when more people were happy with horrible TV sitcoms a half hour later than the main movie.

It all boils down to: Does this genre interests you? If it does, I'll give the movie a rave rating, because it looks like every other movie with this setting, except with better actors. If not, feel free to join in next time you get stuck with a movie like this on a plane in a salute to the dearly departed crew of the SOL.

Rating:
Summary: All the right ingredients..........
Review: Oscar Wilde's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST continues to enjoy the top shelf of popular comedies. It is written with great wit, irony, memorable lines, dextrous manipulation of the English language, and delicious entertainment. When the cast for this reincarnation of the comedy on film includes such luminaries as Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Massey, Frances O'Connor, Edward Fox and (yes...) Reese Witherspoon, then the product promises to be the penultimate presentation. The acting is superb, the story goes forth, but somehow the pacing and most especially the atrocious musical score add unwelcome lead to an otherwise brisk and fluffly drawing room comedy of errors. But in the end the perfection of Wilde's writing and story wins out. A welcome surprise is how well Witherspoon adapts to a British period piece. This is definitely one of her best performances and shows promise that she will probably have a healthy, lasting mivie career.

Rating:
Summary: The Importance of Being a BRILLIANT film!
Review: I am 12 years old, and I thought this film was fantastic!
All those clever words.
And of course I am a Judi Dench (Lady.Bracknell) fan. So that was a big bonus to the film.
And all the other big actors were good too:
E. Fox, R. Weatherspoon, T. Wilkinson.
Wonderful!

Rating:
Summary: Reese and Rupert are wonderful!
Review: I have seen both the old version and this version of the classic and I must admit that I think this 2nd version is far better. The same dialoge was used but the timing was so wonderful in this version that I got all the jokes and the characters seemed much more real. The scenes were wonderful and i just felt they did a wonderful job in their casting for the roles. All I can say is WOW!

Rating:
Summary: Not an Ideal Movie
Review: Like most I saw this movie because I enjoyed "An Ideal Husband". It was one of my top 5 movies of 1999. "Ideal" was a terrific movie well acted, with a great plot and a very interesting twist I thought would never had happened.

Unfortunetly what made "Ideal" delightful is not repeated in "Earnest". I never read or saw the Wilde play , I understand that it is one of his better works. But I saw no evidence of that in this film. Rupert Everette was a joy to watch (and the reason I am giving it 2 stars as opposed to one) but beyond that I really was not impressed.I was so bored I was truly tempted to walk out on it during the first half hour.

If I was renting the DVD today, I would only watch the first 20 minutes in order to get the set up, I would then watch the last fifteen minutes to get the end. That really is all you need, the rest is just filler.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies since "Ideal Husband"
Review: Having never read the book, and only aquainted with Oscar Wilde through seeing "Ideal Husband" on my sisters recommendation (a comedic success and one of my favorite films!), my husband and I went to our local theater to see the stage production of "The Importance of Being Earnest". We laughed the whole time and were captivated by the wit and humor of the lines. Needless to say, when "The Importance of Being Earnest" came to the movie theater we ran to see it.

I can not say enough GOOD about this movie. It was almost line for line from the play, and the characters seemed to be made for their parts. It took me a while to get used to serious, stone-faced Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) being the playful, funny "Earnest"/John, but he was wonderful in the part. As always, Rupert Everett (the cute, wonderful, and funny Arthur in "Ideal Husband") lived up to my expectations and BECAME "Earnest"/Alganon.

I would HIGHLY recommend that you watch this movie--over and over! If you enjoy dry humor and wit, you will love this movie. You have to listen closely to catch all the puns and one-liners, but they are so funny when you do. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Alganon shows up at John's house and the next 20 minutes of the movie are spent with John trying to get rid of his unwanted houseguest--the lines are classic. My husband and I have been quoting them ever since we saw the movie! I can not wait for it to come out on DVD--I will be the first in line to purchase it. "The Importance of Being Earnest" gets FIVE BIG STARS from this reviewer!! *****