The Importance Of Being Earnest Reviews

NOTE: THIS FILM IS CERTIFICATE PG AND NOT 15 AS STATED IN THE LISTING!

This is a fun and light-hearted production of Wilde's classic play. Some interesting twists and reading between Wilde's lines, but goodness... Lady Bracknell as a showgirl... well really!

Judi Dench is magnificent as always (although she does somewhat self-conciously understate the famous "A Handbag!" line) and the rest of the cast complement each other well.

Highly recommended!

Excellent comedy of manners!

Colin firth does it again....swoon! A funny yet sweetly romantic girly film for a Friday night in with the girls.

Oscar Wilde was a brilliant writer and this tale stands the test of time and is as delightful today as it must have been to it's original victorian audience.

Having just reviewed Jude and commenting on my lack of appreciation for the classics, I found this film very entertaining. Basically it's a farce, the story is quick paced and the acting good, Judi Dench is superb (when is she not?) and Reece Witherspoon passes for English with ease. Kind of reminds me of the Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, for those of you into Opera.

Although Oliver Parker has already scripted and directed a successful Wilde adaptation, this second attempt is not up to the first. The additional dialogue screams out from the original, and is anachronistic and unsubtle. Judi Dench's Lady Bracknell is a brilliant tour-de-force and challenges the original glittering performance by Edith Evans in the 1952 film. This apart, everyone else disappoints. This is no mean feat when you have a cast that should have shone. I recommend going back to to the Anthony Asquith 1952 version to see Wilde at his trenchant, pithy best, performed by a superlative cast, including Margaret Rutherford as Miss Prism.

Oscar Wilde's wordplay is as witty and clever as it ever was. Every performance seems to show the actors enjoying themselves. A real pleasure. The only fly in the ointment is the music, which while good and full of life seems a litle at odds with the setting of the story, a little too Jeeves and Wooster maybe?

It was a nice English comedy.Judy Dench is so good in her rolls and Colin too..i am pleased to see such a film.

A Pleasant Surprise!!

I actually only watched this to dribble at Colin Firth but was pleasantly surprised at how funny it was. The acting was brilliant and Colin Firth played a completely different character to usual, although still swoon material! I loved the way it was directed with a contemporary feel and the modern day touches were fab!! Great girly pic.

Despite the great potential of the cast and Oscar Wilde?s script, director Oliver Parker put aside too many Wilde's witticisms and failed in an attempt to develop the visual appearance of the film. Nevertheless, the lines remaining from the original script still allow the work to be passable.

The performances were only mediocre, with Reese Witherspoon the only one to shine, easily passing herself off as English. The animosity and mutual dependence of Rupert Everett and Colin Firth was funny to a degree, but the ensemble could not carry this off after the first 45 minutes of the film before things descend into an on-screen mayhem.

All in all, it was enjoyable but not the classic it could have achieved. For lovers of the classic English genre, this adaptation of an Oscar Wilde play would be a delightful film.

A new version of the Oscar Wilde classic, beautifully understated yet completely believable. Superb acting by all concerned.

Good casting and an enjoyable romp. Perhaps not the definitive version, but nevertheless, extremely good with Judi Dench surpassing herself as Lady Bracknell.