The Importance Of Being Earnest (DVD)

I'd heard the film wasn't as good as it could have been (not terrible, but reviews suggested disappointment). Despite this, it was our final trip to the cinema for the summer before we all drifted off for a final year of uni. This still looked more appealing than The Bourne Identity to me, and had Colin Firth in for the girls (do my friends just have weird taste?) Credited cast overview: Rupert Everett .... Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff (aka Earnest) Colin Firth .... John (Jack) Worthing (aka Earnest) Frances O'Connor .... Gwendolen Fairfax Reese Witherspoon .... Cecily Cardew Judi Dench .... Queen Eliz.. er, I mean Lady ...  Read the complete review

Premiering in 1895, The Importance of Being Earnest was Oscar Wilde's final and most enduring play. Like a glass of champagne, the play effervesces with an acerbic humour and lively characters which have ensured its continuing popularity for over one hundred years. Despite this, only two previous screen dramatisations have been made, being released in 1952 and 1992 respectively. This version, released in 2002 and directed by Oliver Parker, boasts an all-star cast and a massive budget, as well as a score composed by Charlie Mole. Earnest Worthing (Colin Firth) regularly comes to London to visit his good friend Algernon 'Algy' Moncrieff (Rupert Everett), and ...  Read the complete review

Yet another version of Oscar Wilde’s play "The Importance of Being Earnest" – there have been many TV dramatisations, the play must always be on at a theatre somewhere in the country, and the famous 1952 movie version is, for many, unsurpassed. Margaret Rutherford, Michael Redgrave, Dorothy Tutin… eee, by ‘eck, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore. I saw this movie version of “The Importance of being Earnest” at the cinema over a year ago, and remember feeling not too enthusiastic about it, for these reasons, of, well, I suppose you’d call it overexposure. But, in the end, I enjoyed the movie, and ...  Read the complete review

It is always difficult to take a classic (in this case Wilde's 1895 play, The Importance of Being Earnest) and to transfer it to the big screen, when it was originally intended for performance on stage, as film and theatre are of course very different genres, givne the fact that the English language has ostensibly altered more in the last 100 years than ever - with usage and vocabulary changing, and with a current tendency to dumb down, I was uncertain as to whether there would be very much retained from the original. To this end, I was pleasantly surprised, although by using actors (e.g. Colin Firth and Dame Judi Dench) who were well versed in the classics and ...  Read the complete review

"The Importance of being Earnest" is one of those plays that most people have heard of. It has made a forray onto the big screen before, in a version that I found rather staid and very stagey. So, would the new effort be any good? Before we move into the realm of film, I'll just outline the story for anyone unfamiliar with the details of Oscar Wilde's piece of genius. Algernon and Jack are young men in the late 1800s. Jack has invented a wicked younger brother called Ernest so he can spend time in the town misbehaving. Algernon pretends to have an invalid friend called Bunbury so he can spend time being disreputable in the country. Under the ...  Read the complete review