Main Cast: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor, Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench
Release Year: 2002
Country: UK
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
A superb cast brings Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners to life in the third big-screen adaptation of this hilarious look at fun, games, and dubious ethics among the British upper crust. Algernon Moncrieff (Rupert Everett) is a slightly shady, but charming gentlemen from a wealthy family who has a bad habit of throwing his money away. Algernon has a close friend named Jack Worthing (Colin Firth), a self-made man who acts as a ward to his cousin, a beautiful young lady named Cecily (Reese Witherspoon). Algernon has created an alter ego to help him get out of tight spots brought on by his financial improprieties, and when he learns that Jack has created a false identity of his own -- Earnest, a brother living in London whose exploits have earned him no small amount of notoriety -- Algernon arrives for a weekend visit in the country posing as the mysterious Earnest. Having heard of Earnest's misadventures many times over the years, Cecily had developed something of an infatuation with the lovable rogue, and Algernon's impersonation of him works no small degree of magic on Cecily. Meanwhile, Algernon's cousin, Gwendolyn (Frances O'Connor), arrives for the weekend, and is startled to discover Jack is also there -- except that she knows him as bad-boy Earnest. So just who is in love with who? How will Lady Bracknell (Judi Dench) handle the matter of her daughter Gwendolyn's suitors? And what's the truth about Jack's mysterious heritage? The Importance of Being Earnest was director Oliver Parker's second film adaptation of an Oscar Wilde comedy; he previously helmed An Ideal Husband, which also starred Rupert Everett. Everett and Colin Firth also co-starred in the 1984 drama Another Country. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The weightlessness of The Importance of Being Earnest makes it clear why Miramax released this trifle as counterprogramming to Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones rather than during its traditional Oscar season. A mistaken-identity farce to rival Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde's play has always been considered a classic comedy of manners/errors. But Oliver Parker's film suffers a bit by following the recent deluge of British period comedies, among them The Ideal Husband (also starring Rupert Everett and directed by Parker) and Emma. Everyone is having a jolly good time, and the production is as handsome as one could want, but there's no fresh sense of rediscovery, which might have accompanied the film had it come out a couple years earlier. It's so trivial that there's also no sense of peril about the fragile relations falling short of a happy conclusion, nor the whole enterprise unraveling under the stern displeasure of Judi Dench's imperious Lady Bracknell. Fortunately, no one's really expecting a near tragedy, especially with that giddy soundtrack and the ready grins of all the performers. While most of the cast is accustomed to this milieu, Reese Witherspoon acquits herself surprisingly well in the new form, her natural bird-like prissiness used to good effect and her accent passable. Overall, Parker has an exquisitely literate, humorous, and watchable film on his hands, and the fact that it doesn't stick long after leaving the theater is kind of irrelevant. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Paul Ghiradani - Art Director, Celestia Fox - Casting, Quinney Sachs - Choreography, David Brown - Co-producer, Maurizio Millenotti - Costume Designer, Richard Hewitt - First Assistant Director, Oliver Parker - Director, Guy Bensley - Editor, Uri Fruchtman - Executive Producer, Peter King - Hair Styles, Charlie Mole - Composer (Music Score), Peter King - Makeup, Luciana Arrighi - Production Designer, Tony Pierce-Roberts - Cinematographer, Barnaby Thompson - Producer, Ian Whittaker - Set Designer, John Midgley - Sound/Sound Designer, Oliver Parker - Screenwriter, David Brown - Additional Cinematography, Max Hoskins - Supervising Sound Editor, Men From Mars - Visual Effects, Oscar Wilde - Play Author
The plot revolves around two men in EdwardianEngland, John (Jack) Worthing and Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff. Whenever Jack travels to London from his Hertfordshire estate he says he is going to see his (fictitious) wayward brother Ernest. Once in London he keeps his privacy by calling himself Ernest. This tactic is especially important as his beloved, Gwendolen, declares that she could only love a man named Ernest. Her cousin, Algy, is the one person who knows Jack's secret and one day he travels down to the estate, announcing himself to Jack's attractive ward Cecily as the infamous Ernest. Cecily is enamoured with him and his name, and upon Jack's return home and Gwendolen's unexpected arrival it becomes clear there are both too many and too few Ernests earnestly courting.
Awards and nominations
The film won the 2003 Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists's Silver Ribbon award for Best Costume Design, the movie's costumes being designed by Maurizio Millenotti.
Actress Finty Williams, who plays Lady Bracknell as a young dancer, is the daughter of Dame Judi Dench, who plays the older Lady Bracknell.
The scenes where Rupert Everett slaps Colin Firth on his rear end and where Everett kisses Firth's cheek were ad libbed. Director Oliver Parker thought Firth's stunned reaction was so humorous he decided to leave it in.
The business with 'Earnest's' bill at the Savoy, and with the money collectors coming to Jack's country home, are taken from material Wilde cut from the play prior to its publication.
Though cut from the revised version, the gardener Molton can be seen in the background of many scenes.
The producers of the film paid 50,000 pounds to use West Wycombe Park as Jack's home in the country.[2]
