(updated 5/21/02)

 
"The first act is ingenious, the second beautiful, the third abominably clever."
 
—Oscar Wilde

 
Rolling Stone, by Peter Travers (May 6, 2002)
For a playwright who was imprisoned for two years for the "gross indecency" of being homosexual, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a pretty funny guy. Earnest is rightly considered to be the peak of Wilde's wit, and the 1952 film version, with an indelible performance by Dame Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell, deserves landmark status. So why remake it? From the looks of this freewheeling, loose-limbed take on Earnest, writer-director Oliver Parker, who also filmed Wilde's An Ideal Husband, wanted to blow the dust off, air the thing out and take a few cheeky liberties.

Which is fine—mostly. Dame Judi Dench splendidly fills in for Dame Edith with her own less madcap but equally hilarious take on Lady Bracknell, a woman who will not endure trickery. And yet here we have Algy (Rupert Everett), who loves Cecily (Reese Witherspoon), and his friend Jack (Colin Firth), who loves Gwendolen (Frances O'Connor), both pretending to be the nonexistent Ernest? Don't ask why. The plot is just an excuse on which to hang Wilde's bons mots. Everett, whose scenes with Firth are a droll delight, nails every sly laugh. And Witherspoon adds her own legally blond American sparkle to this British party. Parker pushes a bit—who knew Earnest had a love duet sung by Algy and Jack?—but he proves this vintage bubbly hasn't lost its fizz.

Newsweek, by David Ansen (May 27, 2002)
The best moments in Oliver Parker’s screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest” are 
when the movie just sits back and lets Wilde’s supremely witty scenes play. Like the one in which the imperious Lady Bracknell (Judi Dench) interrogates Jack Worthing (Colin Firth), who is pleading for her daughter Gwendolen’s (Frances O’Connor) hand in marriage. “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune,” she hisses icily upon discovering his orphan status, “to lose both looks like carelessness.” [...]

This may be a less than ideal “Earnest,” but it still has delights, not least of all Anna Massey’s Miss Prism, Cecily’s dotty tutor, and Tom Wilkinson’s Dr. Chasuble, her clergyman admirer. Firth’s comic timing is subtle and seductive, and plays nicely off Everett’s jaded foppery....

NY Daily News, Jack Mathews, (May 22, 2002) (full review)
Parker has not so much opened up the play as he has aired it out...To that extent, it's dependent on the play of its cast, and Parker has done well by his ensemble. Firth, with a certain starch in his manner, is perfect as the vulnerable, love-struck Jack, while Everett's late-blooming comedy skills suit the winsome loser Algie.

Important, "Earnest" is not, but if you're looking for a break from the popcorn features dominating theaters, you may find it worthy.
 

 

  
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