The Importance of Being Earnest is a classic Oscar Wilde stage play. Colin Firth's wealthy Jack and Rupert Everett rakish Algy play two young gents living in 1890's England and both use the same pseudonym of Earnest (Jack's non existent brother) on the sly.Both fall in love with women using that name. Frances O'Connor's Gwendolen and Reese Witherspoon's Cecily which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities. There is also a side plot of Firth being found abandoned as a baby as he has no knowledge of his real parents.The play is a farce as well as a cutting satire which has a lot to say about status and marrying for money and these mores are represented by Judi Dench's snobbish Lady Bracknell.However this film version is flat. Even Lady Bracknell feels a bit off here, some of her famous witty lines lack bite.The film feels ponderous and forced when it should be light. Frankly Firth and Everett although enjoying themselves, look rather too old especially compared with Witherspoon and O'Connor.The director Oliver Parker has opened up the play, there is a nice scene when both Firth and Everett sing and serenade their sweethearts and you feel just then the film has found its gear. It needed more of that verve.

Do not see this. If you like the Oscar Wilde, the play, or have heard good things about it, see the 1952 version. That was really good. The music is really weird and confusing, the characters are completely changed from the way Oscar Wilde meant them to be, and (I won't give it away), the ending is stupid. It has a great cast, but I was extremely disappointed in the way it was executed.And now I need to fill up a few lines. The old version was great. I loved the characters, and the way it wasn't changed from the play. Damn, how do people write this much? The recurring famous paintings theme was a little weird. Very distracting.

07 FEB 2008 Owing to my good studies at Paris University under the tutorial of the late Professor Robert Merle, the tremendous author of "Weekend à Zuydcoote", "The Day of the Dolphin", etc., who wrote is PhD thesis on the life and work of Oscar Wilde, Writing this comment I have just discovered that my revered Professor had passed away in 2004, and I feel a pinch in my heart, yet his teaching, jokes, good humor and immense knowledge of the English Literature - which got him on the boat that took him to free London after the debacle of the French Army at the beginning of WWII; "Weekend at.." is a true biographical story - will always remain in my mind and in my heart; this is a true Byronian addendum So owing to my said studies and my preferred taste, I know most of Oscar Wilde's work by heart, and especially TIOBE. I read some of the comments, the ones, who like this version and the ones, who do not appreciate it.No one has underlined that the strength of Oscar Wilde's wit is his brilliant, sharp and acute use of paradox, which my Random Dictionary defines as:"1/ a seemingly contradictory or absurd statement that expresses a possible truth; 2/ a self-contradictory and false proposition; 3/ a person, thing or situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature; 4/ an opinion or statement contrary to commonly accepted opinion." or in the case of Oscar Wilde all the 4 propositions very smartly intertwined in this play, his very best. Of course he uses paradox in his previous plays, but here in TIOBE he has achieved the top effects of all the 4 paradox possibilities at their best. And this is what makes this play so enjoyable not only at the time of Queen Victoria, but at any given time : mothers will always try to get the best possible match for their off-springs, and this was true in 1890 and in 1990 and in 2002..... Nothing has changed, except for the way we dress, speak, etc. And as one commentator wrote very sensibly, in this version "we do not hear four-letter words, farts, burps, or see tits, and more buttocks, "I must say that I have found this version of the play very true to the intention of the author, and no, Oscar Wilde would not turn in his grave, I am sure he would be very pleased and have a great time. I want to add that all the actors, including the two butlers Edward Fox and Patrick Godfrey, have done a terrific job, and I want to say that Dame Judi Dench has done tremendously with Lady Bracknell (which I thought she had not done so well with Lady De Bourg in the latest version of P&P), I may not like so much the additions of the Muses in the bushes, etc.., but this is a movie and not a PLAY on a stage. A play may lend itself to interpretations and some changes, since there are no clear-cut limits imposed by the author. Regarding P&P, for instance, the author has written in the NOVEL exactly all he or she, she in this example, wants to see and all she needs to bring her ideas to the mind of the readers, this is why I tend to be very demanding of the directors to respect the text of the authors : they cannot do what they jolly well please !!! Please go and enjoy !

Like my title says,this film has beautiful photography,great locations,some great period sets,great costumes,in fact the production leaves little to be desired. The cast seems perfectly tailored for this type of film,with the exception of American actress Witherspoon who IMO could have been replaced by a British actress. I'm no expert in Oscar Wilde,but i know i greatly enjoyed the "ideal husband" with R.Everet,and i was expecting something similar with equal charm.This was not it. This film has no rhythm,no sense of development ,the staging of many scenes is completely unimaginative,the competent actors seem to have had no help whatsoever from the director in the delivering of classic one liners and have problem breathing life into these classic comic situations.In a word it is very badly directed. The end result is a good-looking picture that drags on and never makes one laugh. its unfortunate because with this cast and production values,this could have been a classic.