The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)

The Importamce of Being Earnest
A movie that will appeal to people of all ages who have ever been in love.

Will the Real Earnest Please Stand Up?
This little drawing room comedy is Oscar Wilde's sent up of late Victorian manner, mores and hypocrisies. The premise is that there is some kind of difference in the scale of worthiness in a name. So the whole play centers on false names and potentially false promises. And in Victorian society that indeed was the case. The use of double misidentifications by Worthing and Montcrief add a nice touch. The play may seem a little dated to modern audiences who do not necessarily face high class distinctions in our somewhat more democratic age but sit back and watch a master use the English language to skewer some very deeply held pretensions. And in the end that society made Brother Wilde pay for his indolence. All become he liked men and made no bones about it. The hell with them. But laugh a little here.

Great pictorialization of a delightful play
It took 57 years from the original theatrical premiere for there to be a movie of Oscar Wilde's greatest and wittiest play -a play indeed once described as the wittiest in the English language .It was well worth the wait for this is a splendid piece of work .

Anthony Asquith who directed and adapted the work for the screen made little attempt to open up the play for the cinema. While he does use close-ups and other cinematic devices he makes it clear we are going to see filmed theatre by going so far as to depict a couple entering a stage box and taking their place in front of a stage curtain which then rises to signal the start of the film .The movie then proceeds to showcase Wilde's with and badinage and to preserve for posterity a number of great performances from actors steeped in the theatrical tradition of which its author was a part .

Jack and Algy,played respectively by Michael Redgrave and Michael Dennison ,are two well to do men about town bachelors .They are enamoured of two women -Joan Greenwood and Dorothy Tutin .Both of the women have a fixation on marrying a man named Earnest which poses a particular problem for Jack as he does not know his real name ,having been a foundling ,discovered inside a handbag in the left luggage section of a large London railway station .The key to unearthing his real identity and smoothing the path of true love lies with a ditzy governess,Miss Prism and an amorous clergyman with a crush on her ,Canon Chasuble

Complicating matters -and getting a major share of the best lines -is the virago Lady Bracknell ,a snob of monstrous proportions who is reluctant to permit the marriage of her ward to a man of such infelicitous origins .
The play is stylish and sunny but it does prick the bubble of the social pretensions and pomposities of its era, doing so with an elegant,insouciant wit .
The production reflects the style and polish of its age with decor and costumes that are perfectly realised and appropriate to the play but it is with the acting that the movie comes into its own .Redgrave and Dennison give peformances of high gloss and great accomplishment ,Tutin is pert and engaging while Joan Greenwood deploys her trademark vocal huskiness and langourousness to great effect.Margaret Rutherford -jowls aquiver and voive atremble-is a perfect Miss Prism while Miles Malleson as the vicar is a perfect foil for the character.Acting honours go however to Dame Edith Evans as the monstrous Lady Bracknell who made the part her own to such an extent that it eclipsed even Judy dench in the remake .Her multi-octave take on the words "A Handbag " have entered British screen history
This is a treat for those who are seeking a screen version of the play which focuses on the original work without seeking to showcase elaborate sets or to distarct attention from the work by opening up the play .It trusts Wilde and the result is a work of great with and style