The Importance of Being Earnest | | Cast : | Rupert Everett, Colin Firth | | Director : | Oliver Parker | | Studio : | Buena Vista Home Vid | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 01, 2002 | | DVD Released Date : | January 04, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | Good! | Content
 | Oscar Wilde's comedy about 2 wealthy British men of the 1890s who woo 2 wealthy women. The comedy centers around the men's ill-conceived attempts to conceal their identities. The script seems faithful to Wilde and very good; but I remember reading the play on my own and finding it even funnier. Good literature always reads better than it comes across as performed. No theatre can compare with the perfect theatre of the mind! I like the cast in general--a competent crew--though I suspect that they failed to fully exploit the humor in the script. Scenes that should have been hilarious were merely interesting. A certain dynamic tension was lacking: the actors exercised far too much restraint and should have been much more expressive and passionate, and played each quip for full effect. Despite my criticism, the movie is a strong and professional effort, better than most period pieces. The saving grace is Wilde's wit and his aesthetic philosophy, which shines through along with the barest glimmers of class consciousness. Wilde is never boring and his plays inspire reflection. If the British legal system of 1895 had not seen fit to crucify this promising playwright, who knows what great works he might have bequeathed us? Incidentally, I greatly enjoyed the 1998 film starring Stephen Fry about Oscar Wilde's life. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Oscar Wilde well done | Content
| Okay, the plot is ridiculous -- but the language, the lines, the wit are wonderful. And so are the performances. Colin Firth is fabulous (as usual) as Jack Worthing and the perfect foil for Rupert Everett who is the suave Algernon. This is a delightful rendering of the classic story.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 14, 2005 | | Summary | Brilliant Adapation of a Brilliant Play | Content
| Imagine the challenge of tackling adapting a near perfect play for the screen, one known and adored across the world as the pinnacle of comedy. Oliver Parker undertook such a challenge in making "The Importance of Being Earnest" into cinematic fare, and the end result is, a new view of brilliance!
Starring Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Dame Judi Dench, and Reese Witherspoon, Earnest spins the tale of comical deceit of two friends, Jack and Algernon. Each conspire through the film to woo girls of their choosing by nearly any means possible. The end result is reminiscient of some of Shakespeare's best comedies, one of implausibilities that are so absurb that you believe them all of the more. Perhaps Wilde, in his genuis of paradox, intended for that to happen all along.
Parker's adaptation of the play is brilliant in its own right. Taking much from the source text, and translating it to a visual medium, such as film, must have been quite daunting. Parker succeeded quite well, creating a film that doesn't ever work to subsume the originial, but complement it in its own unique way. I think perhaps that Wilde would love this adaptation himself!
The acting in this film is superb. First, how can anyone go wrong with Firth, Everett, Witherspoon, and the incomperable Dench, who seethes with her role with an intensity that only she can muster. They handle the comedy with aplomb and naturalness; it sparkles delightful. Reese Witherspoon pulls off her English accent quite well, playing Cicely as young and delightful as she is.
Another aspect of this film that is remarkable is the soundtrack. Normally, a soundtrack blends in to accompany the larger piece. In this movie, the soundtrack stands out as a wild, fun accourement to the film. I quite enjoyed the jazzy feel to it, and the scene where Algy and Jack serenade the girls is so bubbly fun that it inspires intense hilarity. I just purchased the soundtrack and look forward it its many hours playing on my computer.
The Importance of Being Earnest may be a forgotten gem, but once you unearth it, it sparkles like nothing you've seen on your screen in months. I highly recommend you purchasing this movie for your collection, and you may surprise yourself upon how much you actually watch this jewel yourself! |
| Rating | | | Date | July 14, 2005 | | Summary | Very much worth seeing and enjoying | Content
| "The Importance of Being Earnest" was a huge success in its time. As you listen to the language you can understand why. The wit and fun of it carry the audience along as if we were running from ride to ride at a verbal amusement park. Here a brilliant phrase, there sly social commentary, there a bit of romance, back again for a simple joke or an inversion of meaning (much of the play is about one kind of inversion or another). Oscar Wilde was an easy virtuoso who had total command of his art form however light the purpose.
This movie is beautifully done and is quite enjoyable. There are some strange changes that make no sense to me. For example, why make Jack the younger brother when in the play he is the older brother? The changes of chopping up scenes is a bow to movie making and the attention span of modern audiences, but it isn't Wilde. Also, the play was presented as the present time in 1895. This movie seems to be Victorian in dress, but later in technology and music. And what is the tattoo business? And why do movie makers seem to need to chop language from plays whose glory is precisely their language? Since we go to the movie FOR the language more than the pictures of these playwrights, why not make the movie just a bit longer and leave us what the author actually wrote?
Those quibbles aside, the actors are brilliant, enjoyable, and make watching this movie a delight.
That being said, one of the issues in enjoying these popular works from a century or more ago is that we cannot enjoy them exactly as their original audiences did. Since this was a play of the present time it is clear it is not our present. We enjoy it with what we know about those times with their manners and customs. We also enjoy getting to know more about how those people viewed their present. There is also the delight in the differences between their time and ours as well as the shocking similarities. These cultural treasures take on additional meanings as they take remain the same but take shifting places in the pantheon as our culture moves beneath them.
Very much worth seeing, enjoying, and remembering. |
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