The Importance of Being Earnest (2002)
Country: GB/US
Technical: Technicolor/Panavision 98m
Director: Oliver Parker
Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Massey, Edward Fox
Synopsis:
Old friends Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff both fall for girls who have set their hearts on marrying someone by the name of Ernest.
Review:
With a cast like this it would be hard to fault the playing, and yet it either seems too theatrical (Everett) or not theatrical enough (Dench); the only bull's eye is Frances O'Connor's breathless and alluring Gwendoline. The criticism cuts to the heart of the problems of adapting this epigrammatic and stagey piece for the screen (in this it is quite unlike the less frothy An Ideal Husband, qv.). Unfortunately these issues are resolved in a wantonly restless mise en scène, carving up slabs of sustained dialogue into digestible visual sweetmeats (ironically only Lady Bracknell's grilling of Jack is translated more or less whole and falls resoundingly flat), and some outrageous flights of fancy and modernity: Cecily's pre-Raphaelite fantasies, Aunt Agatha's vicious past, Gwendoline's tattoo, Jack and Algy's Cliff Richard-esque serenade. All of which is outrageously entertaining but has very little to do with what made the original so charming.
Country: GB/US
Technical: Technicolor/Panavision 98m
Director: Oliver Parker
Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Massey, Edward Fox
Synopsis:
Old friends Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff both fall for girls who have set their hearts on marrying someone by the name of Ernest.
Review:
With a cast like this it would be hard to fault the playing, and yet it either seems too theatrical (Everett) or not theatrical enough (Dench); the only bull's eye is Frances O'Connor's breathless and alluring Gwendoline. The criticism cuts to the heart of the problems of adapting this epigrammatic and stagey piece for the screen (in this it is quite unlike the less frothy An Ideal Husband, qv.). Unfortunately these issues are resolved in a wantonly restless mise en scène, carving up slabs of sustained dialogue into digestible visual sweetmeats (ironically only Lady Bracknell's grilling of Jack is translated more or less whole and falls resoundingly flat), and some outrageous flights of fancy and modernity: Cecily's pre-Raphaelite fantasies, Aunt Agatha's vicious past, Gwendoline's tattoo, Jack and Algy's Cliff Richard-esque serenade. All of which is outrageously entertaining but has very little to do with what made the original so charming.
Country: GB/US
Technical: Technicolor/Panavision 98m
Director: Oliver Parker
Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Massey, Edward Fox
Synopsis:
Old friends Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff both fall for girls who have set their hearts on marrying someone by the name of Ernest.
Review:
With a cast like this it would be hard to fault the playing, and yet it either seems too theatrical (Everett) or not theatrical enough (Dench); the only bull's eye is Frances O'Connor's breathless and alluring Gwendoline. The criticism cuts to the heart of the problems of adapting this epigrammatic and stagey piece for the screen (in this it is quite unlike the less frothy An Ideal Husband, qv.). Unfortunately these issues are resolved in a wantonly restless mise en scène, carving up slabs of sustained dialogue into digestible visual sweetmeats (ironically only Lady Bracknell's grilling of Jack is translated more or less whole and falls resoundingly flat), and some outrageous flights of fancy and modernity: Cecily's pre-Raphaelite fantasies, Aunt Agatha's vicious past, Gwendoline's tattoo, Jack and Algy's Cliff Richard-esque serenade. All of which is outrageously entertaining but has very little to do with what made the original so charming.