Reviews

Importance of Being Earnest, The

A movie review by James Berardinelli

The chief pleasure to be found in any version of Oscar Wilde's play, The Importance of Being

Earnest, is the dialogue, and Oliver Parker's re-interpretation is no different. All of the great lines

are here: "The very essence of romance is uncertainty", "To lose one parent...may be regarded as

a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness", "Thirty-five is an attractive age. London is

full of women of the highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for

years", "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his",

"Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of

modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately, in England at any rate, education produces

no effect whatsoever." The downside to Wilde's delight in toying with language is that he doesn't

pay much attention to details like characterization or plot development. To the degree that these

are present, they are afterthoughts, included simply to provide structure.

In the name of modernizing The Importance of Being Earnest, writer/director Parker has taken

liberties with the source material. He has cut, pasted, re-arranged, and added. Despite this,

however, Earnest remains faithful to the spirit (if not always the letter) of Wilde's text. The

advantages and drawbacks are pretty much the same, as well. The story is insubstantial, the

characters simply drawn, and the dialogue rich with wit and humor. If you like motion pictures

that rely almost exclusively on words, this film will be a godsend. It also helps that the dialogue

is recited by actors of talent and charisma. Wilde's lines are not merely spoken; they are relished.

Unfortunately, the film lacks the frothy, whimsical tone of another recent Wilde adaptation, An

Ideal Husband (also directed by Parker), and, as a result, comes across as occasionally slow and

plodding. I enjoyed the film for what it is - a mistaken identity farce - but I didn't leave the

theater overly enthused. With this cast, this director, and this source material, I expected to be

swept away on a wave of enchantment, but nothing close to that happened.

The story centers around a non-existent man named Ernest Worthing. He is the alter-ego of Jack

Worthing (Colin Firth), who uses that name whenever he comes to town so he can act in a

reckless manner without having to worry about the consequences. Jack is in love with

Gwendolen Fairfax (Frances O'Connor), who would marry him if not for the disapproval of her

mother, the formidable Lady Bracknell (Judi Dench). Lady Bracknell's chief objection to Jack is

simple - he doesn't know who his parents are. As a baby, he was found abandoned by a kind man

who raised him to adulthood and left him a fortune, an estate, and a ward - pretty Cecily Cardew

(Reese Witherspoon). When Jack's city friend, Algernon Moncrieff (Rupert Everett), learns of

Cecily's existence, he has a powerful urge to meet the girl. So, "borrowing" Jack's name of

Ernest Worthing, he shows up at Jack's country estate, pretending to be the long-lost black sheep

of the family. Cecily is delighted, and she and Algernon fall in love. That's when Jack arrives,

followed shortly thereafter by Gwendolen and Lady Bracknell. Mistaken identity complications

ensue as everyone tries to find, or be, or not be, Ernest.

A tremendous cast partially offsets the film's curiously docile tone. Rupert Everett, who brought

equally as much suave charm and devilish charisma to An Ideal Husband, seems entirely at home

amidst the barbs of Wilde's words. Colin Firth, who will forever be known as Mr. Darcy

(especially since he has played him twice - once in Pride and Prejudice and once in Bridget

Jones's Diary), takes on the Jane Austen-less persona of Jack. Frances O'Connor, also an Austen

refugee (she was in Mansfield Park), is appealing as Gwendolen. Reese Witherspoon, sporting a

British accent that rings true, steps out of contemporary mode and shows little difficulty with a

period piece. Tom Wilkinson, lately of In the Bedroom, is the meek reverend Dr. Chasuble. And

Judi Dench, who seemingly must be in every Miramax-distributed production, lends her name

and authority to the proceedings.

I have learned from Roger Ebert's review of this film that, at the time The Importance of Being

Earnest was written, the term "earnest" was synonymous with "gay". Considering Oscar Wilde's

sexuality, this is not surprising, but it adds another level to the manner in which the film can be

viewed. The Importance of Being Earnest is regarded in some circles as being Wilde's best work.

And, while that may not be apparent from this curiously low-key adaptation, one can still

appreciate some of what the text has to offer. Nevertheless, while The Importance of Being

Earnest offers opportunities for occasional smiles and chuckles, it doesn't give us a reason to be

in the theater beyond Wilde's wit and the actors' performances. For some, that may be enough,

but for most, I suspect, it isn't.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Film

Comedy

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Time Out says

You might suppose that Oscar Wilde's theatrical evergreen is indestructible. But that would be to reckon

without the intervention of 'writer'/director Parker, who really makes a pig's ear of this silk purse.

Witherspoon and O'Connor are fine as Cecily and Gwendolen. Firth makes a dour Jack, Everett is Algy to

the manner born, and Judi Dench's Lady Bracknell is a no-brainer. But all the actors are up against

Parker's mortal dread of being boring. In this respect, the film goes to the opposite extreme of Anthony

Asquith's static 1952 version. Parker encourages everyone to skate across the dialogue as if it were a

frozen lake in thaw. The briefest badinage is likely to incur half-a-dozen scene changes, each delivered

with an unerring eye for the ugliest composition, a thudding cut, a forced bit of business here, an

unwelcome innovation there. (A 'director's cut' runs at 101 min.) TCh.

Author: TCh

Director ruins 'Being Earnest'

Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic

Published 4:00 am, Friday, May 24, 2002

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Photo: HANDOUT

Image 1 of 1

1785R Reese Witherspoon and and Rupert Everett in Oliver Parker's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING

EARNEST. Photo Courtesy: Paul Chedlow (HANDOUT PHOTO)

Image 1 of 1

1785R Reese Witherspoon and and Rupert Everett in Oliver Parker's THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING

EARNEST. Photo Courtesy: Paul Chedlow (HANDOUT PHOTO)

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST: Comedy. Starring Rupert Everett, Colin Firth,

Frances O'Connor and Reese Witherspoon. Directed by Oliver Parker. (PG. 95 minutes. At Bay

Area theaters.)

Given a competent cast and a reasonable budget, anybody could make a decent film out of the Oscar

Wilde play "The Importance of Being Earnest." Just point the camera at whoever is talking. The script

will do the work.

By contrast, to destroy "The Importance of Being Earnest" -- to take a big fat wrecking ball to

one of the surefire delights of world theater -- well, that requires energy and invention. That

requires a writer-director willing to futz around, get fancy, break up rhythms, add dream

sequences and flashbacks and indulge in arbitrary shifts in tone. Oliver Parker does that here, and

the result is a frustrating, boring mess.

The movie starts with one of Parker's additions. Algy (Rupert Everett), a charming ne'er-do-well,

is running through the streets of London, fleeing his creditors. Later in the evening, he meets up

with his friend Jack (Colin Firth), and we discover that the two have something in common.

They've both invented elaborate fictions that allow them to live reckless secret lives. The device

has fascinating unconscious echoes when we realize that, at the time the play debuted, Wilde was

only a few months away from having his secret gay life revealed in an annihilating public

scandal.

The picture is the story of two courtships. Jack is in love with Gwendolyn, played by Frances

O'Connor, who gets the best of the movie's few laughs: "I never travel without my diary. One

should always have something sensational to read on the train." And Algy loves Cecily, played

by Reese Witherspoon, the cast's weak link. It's not that Witherspoon is bad, just that she can't

manage to seem like an English girl, despite a passable English accent.

More disappointing is Judi Dench as the imperious Lady Bracknell. Dench should have been

ideal for the role, but she makes the character too self- aware to be a figure of fun. Perhaps the

director's compulsive tendency toward naturalism got in the actress' way.

With a consistency bordering on the perverse, Parker ruins buildups and kills laughs. Sometimes

he kills them by overpunching jokes, at other times by underplaying them. He also inserts

pointless action into a film in which nothing can happen unless people are talking. Worse than

meaningless are the tableaux we see of Cecily's fantasy life, which have to do with medieval

courtly love -- and nothing to do with Wilde or even Cecily's personality.

Most damaging of all, Parker imposes on this jubilantly sardonic play a fey,

romantic atmosphere -- something like that of Woody Allen's "A Midsummer Night's Sex

Comedy" -- and he reinforces it with jaunty theme music and lots of outdoor shots, as though this

were some bucolic romp. The director is suggesting that, however much the characters might

fancy themselves modern and cynical, they are under the spell of love, the driving force in the

world.

Give Parker credit for having a point of view. But it's a bad point of view that leads him into

disaster -- and into collision with Wilde, who was not writing about cynics cavorting within a

benevolent universe. He was writing about an absurd universe scarcely concealed under a veneer

of decorum.

Review: ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’

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May 12, 2002 | 01:37PM PT

Just as one of Oscar Wilde's resourceful gentlemen is Ernest in town and Jack

in the country, so it seems that "The Importance of Being Earnest" was a

comedy in the last century and a drama in the new one. At least, that's the

dumbfounding impression left by writer-director Oliver Parker's utterly

miscalculated film adaptation of Wilde's play.

Robert Koehler

Just as one of Oscar Wilde’s resourceful gentlemen is Ernest in town and Jack in the

country, so it seems that “The Importance of Being Earnest” was a comedy in the last

century and a drama in the new one. At least, that’s the dumbfounding impression left by

writer-director Oliver Parker’s utterly miscalculated film adaptation of Wilde’s play.

Trims in the text might be expected, though not necessary for an under-two-hour feature;

and the opening up of the stagebound action is decidedly a mixed blessing. But what

washes out the joys of Wilde’s usually delicious concoction is a tone that bafflingly drifts

toward seriousness, especially whenever thesps Colin Firth’s Jack and Judi Dench’s Lady

Bracknell take center-screen. Wilde fans will turn away in dismay, with only costume

drama diehards likely to support this on the big screen.

Pic’s ancillary hopes are even sure to be dimmed, since the Miramax release opens just weeks

before Criterion Collection’s unveiling of a freshly restored DVD edition of Anthony Asquith’s

stagebound but infinitely preferable 1952 version starring an indelible Michael Redgrave as Jack

and Dame Edith Evans as Bracknell. Earlier picture also points to everything that is wrong with

Parker’s handling, which starts with a brief chase scene involving the perpetually indebted dandy

Algy (Rupert Everett) that’s apparently designed to include some “action,” but only looks like

bad outtakes from “From Hell.” Parker’s script breaks up the dialogue between Algy and best

friend, Jack, into sections that take them from a music hall to a lounge to Algy’s London digs,

but this only serves to impede the flow of Wilde’s elegantly constructed dialogue.

Algy exposes Jack’s ongoing ruse that he playacts as a fellow named “Ernest” in the city, which

gives him an excuse to leave his country manor and visit Gwendolen (Frances O’Connor). Algy,

meanwhile, has invented his own fictional creature, a sickly man named Bunbury, whom he

“visits” — that’s his excuse for getting out of the city. None of this is nearly as amusing as it

should be, but things get downright glum when Algy’s aunt, Bracknell, shows up and glowers at

Jack’s interest in Gwendolen. When Bracknell interviews Jack about his class pedigree and

suitability for marriage, it is all about intimidation and not at all about Wilde’s view of Bracknell

as hilariously unaware that she is a bag of hot air.

Parker’s adaptation inserts some new visual material that has Jack dramatically trying to uncover

the true nature of his upbringing, since all he knows is that he was found as a baby in a handbag

at Victoria Station. Nothing is more stunningly off-key in the movie than this revelation, which

invariably gets big laughs in any decent stage version but is approached as high drama

here.Thus, it’s strange to discover — back at Jack’s sylvan estate — that Reese Witherspoon as

Jack’s beloved ward Cecily, Anna Massey as Cecily’s tutor Miss Prism and Tom Wilkinson as

local priest Dr. Chasuble and hopeful suitor to Prism haven’t forgotten they’re actually doing

Wilde. Fitting comfortably with the otherwise Brit cast, Witherspoon instantly flashes her charm

as Cecily drifts off into romantic fantasies (though Parker ruins the effect by archly depicting

them on screen), while Massey and Wilkinson are masters of comic timing and the just slightly

daft turn of their too-long-in-the-country folk.

Adaptation is rarely content to simply let Wilde’s characters settle into the drawing room of their

choosing, continually interrupting the flow of the original text and generating the queasy feeling

of desperation by trucking in “visual” notes.To wit, Algy actually arrives at Jack’s home via hot-

air balloon (with nobody commenting on it).

Some new business involving Algy being chased around London and the countryside by debtors

and Savoy Hotel reps is meant to underline the rake’s non-progress, but it just gets in the way of

what is arguably one of the English language’s most perfectly devised comedies.

Somewhere between the just-right froth of Witherspoon, Massey and Wilkinson and the poor

judgment of Firth and Dench are Everett’s slightly amusing but never winning Algy, and

O’Connor’s pleasant but unmemorable Gwendolen; those prone to imaginative re-casting would

certainly top the list with Richard E. Grant, seemingly born to play Algy.

A big widescreen look, complete with a notably underlit approach by lenser Tony Pierce-

Roberts, creates an expensive, naturalistic style that simply doesn’t belong to Wilde’s specific

and exaggerated universe. Elegance courses through Luciana Arrighi’s slightly Italian-accented

production design, Maurizio Millenotti’s costuming and Peter King’s makeup and hair design.

Pic features one of the worst examples of “funny” music in recent film.

The Importance of Being Earnest U.K.-U.S.

Production

A Miramax release of a Miramax Films and Ealing Studios presentation, in association with Film Council

and Newmarket Capital Group, of a Fragile Films production. Produced by Barnaby Thompson. Executive

producer, Uri Fruchtmann. Co-producer, David Brown. Directed, written by Oliver Parker, based on the

play by Oscar Wilde.

Crew

Camera (Technicolor, Panavision widescreen), Tony Pierce-Roberts; editor, Guy Bensley; music, Charlie

Mole; production designer, Luciana Arrighi; art director, Paul Ghirardani; set decorator, Ian Whittacker;

costume designer, Maurizio Millenotti; sound (Dolby SRD), John Midgley; supervising sound editor, Max

Hoskins; visual effects, Men From Mars; makeup and hair designer, Peter King; choreography, Quinney

Sachs; assistant director, Richard Hewitt; second unit camera, David Brown; casting, Celestia Fox.

Reviewed at Miramax screening room, L.A., May 10, 2001. (In Tribeca Film Festival--International

Showcase.) MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 97 MIN.

With

Algy - Rupert Everett Jack - Colin Firth Gwendolen - Frances O'Connor Cecily - Reese Witherspoon Lady

Bracknell - Judi Dench Dr. Chasuble - Tom Wilkinson Miss Prism - Anna Massey Lane - Edward Fox

Gribsby - Charles Kay

Filed Under:

 Being Earnest  Criterion Collection  Edward Sylvan