Review:
Film
"The Importance Of Being Earnest"
By John Frame (
The Importance Of
Being Earnest (2002)
Director: Oliver Parker
Writer: screenplay by Oliver Parker,
based on the play by Oscar Wilde.
Actors: Rupert Everett as Algy,
Colin Firth as Jack, Dame Judy Dench as
Lady Bracknell, Frances O’Connor as Gwendoline, Reese
Witherspoon as Cecily.
The acting is as fine as
anyone could expect.
The immediate problem for
anyone already acquainted with Oscar Wilde’s original script, is that all of
the changes made for this film version are not only unnecessary, but also quite
damaging to what was in fact a perfectly self-contained and concise dialogue.
Several omissions leave key
set-up lines wasted, and all the additions seem both floundering and
inadequate.
Plot continuity takes a skip
as Lady Bracknell appears, with no attempt at
explanation, at Jack’s house in the country.
The occasional meanderings
into visual and musical fantasy are annoyingly distracting.
All round it’s a “6 of 10”
film and all of those points are due entirely to the quality of the actors.
If Oscar Wilde’s script was
left in tact it could have been worth 8 or 9.
Nearly every comment I’ve
read by a young or older person who has not seen a previous production, is one
of total enthusiasm – often saying they can’t understand why the critics are complaining.
So Oliver Parker may well be much more clever than I thought – just not quite as
clever as Oscar Wilde.