The Importance of Being Earnest

Plot synopsis:
The play is set in "The Present" (i.e. 1895).
=== Act I ===
=== Algernon Moncrieff's flat in Half Moon Street, W ===
The play opens with Algernon Moncrieff, an idle young gentleman, receiving his best friend, John Worthing, whom he knows as Ernest. Ernest has come from the country to propose to Algernon's cousin, Gwendolen Fairfax. Algernon, however, refuses his consent until Ernest explains why his cigarette case bears the inscription, "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack." 'Ernest' is forced to admit to living a double life. In the country, he assumes a serious attitude for the benefit of his young ward, the heiress Cecily Cardew, and goes by the name of John (or, as a nickname, Jack), while pretending that he must worry about a wastrel younger brother named Ernest in London. In the city, meanwhile, he assumes the identity of the libertine Ernest. Algernon confesses a similar deception: he pretends to have an invalid friend named Bunbury in the country, whom he can "visit" whenever he wishes to avoid an unwelcome social obligation. Jack refuses to tell Algernon the location of his country estate.
Gwendolen and her formidable mother Lady Bracknell now call on Algernon who distracts Lady Bracknell in another room while Jack proposes to Gwendolen. She accepts, but seems to love him very largely for his professed name of Ernest. Jack accordingly resolves to himself to be rechristened "Ernest". Discovering them in this intimate exchange, Lady Bracknell interviews Jack as a prospective suitor. Horrified to learn that he was adopted after being discovered as a baby in a handbag at Victoria Station, she refuses him and forbids further contact with her daughter. Gwendolen, though, manages covertly to promise to him her undying love. As Jack gives her his address in the country, Algernon surreptitiously notes it on the cuff of his sleeve: Jack's revelation of his pretty and wealthy young ward has motivated his friend to meet her.
=== Act II ===
=== The Garden of the Manor House, Woolton ===
Cecily is studying with her governess, Miss Prism. Algernon arrives, pretending to be Ernest Worthing, and soon charms Cecily. Long fascinated by Uncle Jack's hitherto absent black sheep brother, she is predisposed to fall for Algernon in his role of Ernest (a name she, like Gwendolen, is apparently particularly fond of). Therefore, Algernon, too, plans for the rector, Dr. Chasuble, to rechristen him "Ernest".
Jack, meanwhile, has decided to abandon his double life. He arrives in full mourning and announces his brother's death in Paris of a severe chill, a story undermined by Algernon's presence in the guise of Ernest.
Gwendolen now enters, having run away from home. During the temporary absence of the two men, she meets Cecily, each woman indignantly declaring that she is the one engaged to "Ernest". When Jack and Algernon reappear, their deceptions are exposed.
=== Act III ===
=== Morning-Room at the Manor House, Woolton ===
Arriving in pursuit of her daughter, Lady Bracknell is astonished to be told that Algernon and Cecily are engaged. The revelation of Cecily's trust fund soon dispels Lady Bracknell's initial doubts over the young lady's suitability, but any engagement is forbidden by her guardian Jack: he will consent only if Lady Bracknell agrees to his own union with Gwendolen—something she declines to do.
The impasse is broken by the return of Miss Prism, whom Lady Bracknell recognises as the person who, twenty-eight years earlier, as a family nursemaid, had taken a baby boy for a walk in a perambulator (baby carriage) and never returned. Challenged, Miss Prism explains that she had absentmindedly put the manuscript of a novel she was writing in the perambulator, and the baby in a handbag, which she had left at Victoria Station. Jack produces the very same handbag, showing that he is the lost baby, the elder son of Lady Bracknell's late sister, and thus indeed Algernon's elder brother. Having acquired such respectable relations, he is acceptable as a suitor for Gwendolen after all.
Gwendolen, though, still insists that she can only love a man named Ernest. What is her fiancé's real first name? Lady Bracknell informs Jack that, as the first-born, he would have been named after his father, General Moncrieff. Jack examines the army lists and discovers that his father's name—and hence his own real name—was in fact Ernest. Pretence was reality all along. As the happy couples embrace—Jack and Gwendolen, Algernon and Cecily, and even Dr. Chasuble and Miss Prism—Lady Bracknell complains to her newfound relative: "My nephew, you seem to be displaying signs of triviality." "On the contrary, Aunt Augusta", he replies, "I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital importance of being Earnest."

Tags: romantic, satire, flashback

Review:
He focused on the "dashing young bachelors" when the real focus of the play is Lady Bracknell, the absurd and beautifully ironic representation of the Victorian mind who was then and has been for over a hundred years Wilde's singular creation and one of the great characters of English literature.
Compared to Dane Edith Evans's brilliant performance in the celebrated cinematic production from 1952, Dench's Lady Bracknell is positively one-dimensional.The point of Wilde's play was to simultaneously delight and satirize the Victorian audience who came to watch the play.
Playwright Oscar Wilde put into Lady Bracknell's mouth some of the most delicious comments in stage history: "To be born, or at any rate bred, in a handbag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution".The story follows the ups and downs and deceits of the two men whilst they pursue Gwendolen and Cecily, dogged by Algy's creditors and Lady Bracknell, whose opposition to Jack's origins proves insurmountable.
Reese Witherspoon as Cecily mastered an English accent and, along with Colin Firth as Jack, Frances O'Connor as Gwendolen and Judi Dench as Lady Bracknell (Aunt Augusta), is first-rate; the film also boasts Edward Fox, Tom Wilkinson and Anna Massey in supporting roles.
It's a wicked slight, but I confess to thinking that Oliver Parker might have had that very fellow in mind when he butchered Oscar Wilde's brilliant play to make this awful film.
The cast choices also looked good: Colin Firth and Rupert Everett as the male leads, the two false "Ernests"; the formidable Judi Dench as the even more formidable Lady Bracknell; Frances O'Connor as Gwendolen Fairfax; and Reese Witherspoon as Cecily Cardew - Witherspoon doing a creditable "Gwyneth Paltrow" turn with an English accent.A bankable American star appears to be a standard requirement these days when presenting an essentially British production to viewers on this side of the Pond.
Why on earth he chose to elide Gwendolen's second statement about her first opinions is baffling beyond all comprehension.Fourth, he apparently failed to notice that the harsh lighting in most of the scenes makes all of the cast, even Ms Witherspoon, look much older than necessary, and certainly older than they should be.Fifth, he shoehorned in some dreadfully awkward and quite out of character physical buffoonery, completely at odds with the tone of the piece.The superb cast is wasted: poor Judy Dench is reduced to whispering her character's iconic line, I can only assume in an overly ostentatious attempt to distance this performance from previous Ladies Bracknell.
Firth, Everett and O'Connor are all just a little too old to pull off their roles, and worst of all, none of the cast seem to be having any fun during the production.This is a dreadful version of what should be a rip roaring play, that fails and disappoints on every front.
The witty repartee that Wilde's characters engage in, particularly in The Importance of Being Earnest, is hilarious in most performances.What a pity, then, that this production of it drags its feet like a drunken yeti (Yes, that's right, a drunken yeti.
Most were provided either by Judi Dench, who brings some true Wildian spirit to the movie as Lady Bracknell, and Reece Witherspoon as the innocently shallow Cecily (but what the #@$& were those 'knight in shining armor' dream scenes?).Wilde I may love, but not this movie.
Reese and her accent were good but the old film had Dorothy Tutin and Joan Greenwood as Gwendolyn who was unique and had that voice.And who could ever compete with Margaret Rutherford in any part she chose to play?The song "Lady, Come Down", was not in the original play and despite being a setting of a real Oscar Wilde poem was just another feeble attempt to be "original".
This sad disappointment of a movie is what happens when you gather a group of top-notch actors together, give them one of the wittiest and funniest plays in the English language, and then put them under the direction of a film-maker who does not trust his material (which is a shame) and who furthermore believes that by tweaking it he may "improve" on it and render it more palatable for modern audiences (which is a scandal).To do director Oliver Parker some justice, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a lighter-than-air comedy of social mores and is -- in its very essence -- not cinematic, but theatrical, as was its creator, Oscar Wilde.
Perhaps it is too much to expect this play ever to be given a 100% successful cinematic make-over.Parker cannot be faulted for trying to translate this play into a cinematic medium; he is, however, guilty of ham-handed 're-writes,' unnecessary excursions, ill-considered excisions, and a feckless attempt to jam his cast into cinematic "dress" that doesn't fit them and that leaves them looking foolish.Watching this film, I felt badly for all the fine actors ensnared in it.
The line readings are slow, the Polonius light character of Lady Bracknell is given to Judi Dench, an actor of tremendous gravity, the basket scene is played as if it were the unmasking of Oedipus - I kept expecting references to pinioned feet.
They all seemed like actors pretending they were living in the era, in amongst over the top sets and oodles of extras.I can't say I laughed out loud at all, so the hilarity I have always experienced on seeing this in the theatre was totally missing.The locations were lovely, but the script was either a bad adaptation or else it was just so badly directed that it just couldn't ever work.Thank God Colin Firth rose above the mediocrity of this awful movie, and Reese Witherspoon and he, will both remained unscathed by this unwatchable remake.And by the way, Judi Dench was at her very worst in this movie, even she didn't seem to believe what she was doing!I would recommend anyone to wait until this movie comes free to TV, that way you can sleep through it and not be miffed you paid to see it!.
In spite of his film-making repertoire being relatively small, Oliver Parker (Othello, An Ideal Husband) does justice to Oscar Wilde's play with a lush and vivacious film adaptation to the nonsensical farce; more than a century later in 2002, it springs to life the hilarious satire of nineteenth century English society.
From the intricate ornaments and overstated decorations in Lady Bracknell's home to the luscious grass of Jack's Hertfordshire Manor House's rolling hills, the sceneries augment the flamboyance in all aspects of the film; this also allows the audience to experience the overstated character of the bourgeois world of The Importance of Being Earnest, which, despite Oscar Wilde's intentions, could not be expressed as clearly on stage.
Only people who can't get into it do that." However, in addition to long discussions regarding muffins and teacakes, Oscar Wilde adds zest with epigrams and one-liners, witty statements that are more than often satirical: "You don't seem to realise, in married life three is company and two is none." The amusing and mocking epigrams, wordplay and discussions both provide a major source of the humour of the film and drive the plot to keep it fresh and appealing.As a result of the entertaining actors that brings the dialogue and story of the film to life, as well as the physical and aural aspects in its surroundings and music, The Importance of Being Earnest is a brilliant piece of entertainment.
It has various plot twists, and where other playwrights would have stopped early on during the revelation of multiple Earnest, and then slap together some closure with a happy ending, this movie keeps on going, slowing stitching back the relationship together, and it keeps on going to the very end, literally up to the last sentence.The film has some very witty dialogue and interesting word play, although I do feel that the wickedest sarcasm has been mellowed down a bit, either by pacing or just edited out..
Like HP, it would appear new subtle elements need to be added to make a the original written word in a film, and going word for word from the original screenplay by Oscar Wilde while making a great stage play, does not necessarily carry as well to the big screen.
And of course Judi Dench is spot on and absolutely brilliant as Lady Bracknell.The film does vary somewhat from the original play (as seems to be what many people are complaining about) but I love the changes.
That's how blinkered they are.) The design is exquisite and the cast perfect (one expects as much from Judi Dench and Colin Firth, but Reese Witherspoon's flawless accent and extraordinary charm make her perhaps even more impressive, while Rupert Everett, an actor of frankly limited range, is for once in his element as a character one suspects is very like himself.) The "additional" dialogue is in fact mostly salvaged from the four-act version Wilde originally wrote, while the few lines which are added take care of necessary exposition economically and without the least incongruity.No other filmed version can make me laugh as much as seeing the play live.
A lot of Hollywood (and English) starpower was brought to bear on this adaptation of Oscar Wilde's well-known drawing room comedy "The Importance of Being Earnest" but simply assembling a group of big names (the better to sell tickets with)and loosely attaching them to a mediocre adaptation of a brilliantly written play (written for the stage, long ago) does nothing for the original story, or the viewer's entertainment.
This is a comedy and not a serious period drama, and what makes it work is the dialog, which is based on the play of the same name by Oscar Wilde and adapted for the screen by the film's director, Oliver Parker.
My wife, who has, was disappointed, because apparently too little of Wilde's words remain in the finished product.The acting talent is first rate, including, in addition to those mentioned above, Tom Wilkinson from "In the Bedroom." They do very well with the material, but it's so light you don't think about the skill required.The bottom line is that this film is a good choice if you are looking for something frothy and entertaining, yet respectable, and you keep your expectations fairly low.Seen on 7/15/2002..
Simply awful version of the Oscar Wilde tale.Only Dame Judi Bench's performance gives a drop of light to this hopeless story.It's a story of conventional manners and goings on in England.Rupert Everett and Colin Firth are given writing material and a story which isn't worth much.
The end result is just plain silly.The actors in the film are attractive, but the story, as presented on the screen, is just so boring, that instead of amusing, it induces the spectator to fall asleep, as witnessed by this writer, on a screening at the Angelika in New York, a few weeks ago.Having seen the play a few times on stage in London, this version pales in comparison to the worst staging of the work.
As a titled lady looking out for the future of her lovely charge, well-played by Francis O'Connor, she brings that very special whiff of aristocratic just-below-the surface opportunism that often passes as a fair representation of the English upper class.And then there's Reese Witherspoon, enjoying an adjournment before returning to court in the forthcoming "Legally Blonde II."  Without joining the debate on her English accent (or butchery of same), she's cute and engaging and does no harm.This film is no substitute for a fine theater production of a timelessly enthralling comedy.
The interaction between Colin Firth and Rupert Everett's characters is the most genuinely hilarious thing I've scene in a new movie in a very long time.
The film follows Jack Worthing (Colin Firth), a wealthy young bachelor who resides in the country with a young ward named Cecily (Reese Witherspoon) while making trips as often as possible to London.
Sounds like bliss, however Gwendolen's mother, Lady Bracknell (Judi Dench) refuses to allow Jack's (or Earnest, as they know him) hand in marriage due to his mysterious parental origins.What ensues further is a hilarious tale of mistaken identity.
Colin Firth's wealthy Jack and Rupert Everett rakish Algy play two young gents living in 1890's England and both use the same pseudonym of Earnest (Jack's non existent brother) on the sly.Both fall in love with women using that name.
There is also a side plot of Firth being found abandoned as a baby as he has no knowledge of his real parents.The play is a farce as well as a cutting satire which has a lot to say about status and marrying for money and these mores are represented by Judi Dench's snobbish Lady Bracknell.However this film version is flat.
Frankly Firth and Everett although enjoying themselves, look rather too old especially compared with Witherspoon and O'Connor.The director Oliver Parker has opened up the play, there is a nice scene when both Firth and Everett sing and serenade their sweethearts and you feel just then the film has found its gear.
In Victorian England, two young ladies are convinced they can only fall in love with men named "Earnest," so wealthy Jack (Colin Firth) and his scoundrel friend Algernon (Rupert Everett) adopt that name and the result is unrestrained hilarity.
Two young Victorian English gentlemen, Algy and Jack played by the superb English actors Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, use the name of Earnest on the sly for their own mischievous ends until they are found out.
Director Oliver Parker, who also directed a film version of Wilde's An Ideal Husband, has gone beyond the text of the play to add more scenes and settings and even a few jokes of his own.
The award winning Dame Judi Dench is great as she plays an absolute dragon in Gwendolen's mother, Lady Bracknell, which produces the occasional laugh, but most of the comedy comes from the sparring between Algy and Jack.
The original filmed version did a good job of moving this theatrical stalwart onto the big screen however since there is no money to be made by re-releasing that into theatres the producers of An Ideal Husband have got Rupert Everett back into a nice suit and filmed the the rest of the cast out with as little invention as possible (indeed the risky decision of casting the American Reese Witherspoon leads to a mildly amusing accent reminiscent of Queenie from Blackadder, but that wears things soon enough).
Never before have a I laughed so hard as when I first saw this movie.Frances O'Connor (of A.I. and Mansfield Park fame) does great credit to her character with sweet innocence and ignorance; Colin Firth and Rupert Everett are brilliantly funny together; and Reese Witherspoon and Judi Dench have elevated their characters beyond mere words and paper to near perfection.Indeed, this movie is a must-see for any Oscar Wilde fan, those who love comedies of manners, and, of course, those who just need a good laugh.
I must admit I was a bit cynical about this adaptation of one of my favourite Oscar Wilde plays but I had seen Oliver Parker's "An Ideal Husband" which I thoroughly enjoyed.When I discovered England's excellent trio of Judi Dench, Colin Firth and Rupert Everett were to play Lady Bracknell/Jack Worthing/Algernon Moncrieff, I knew I had to see it.I was rather dubious about the casting of an American and an Australian for the two principal female roles of Cecily and Gwendolyn, and their characters were not fully developed.
I was also relieved to see that there was none of Firth's `Mr Darcy' character showing.I was not wholly persuaded by Rupert Everett, switching from rakish cad one minute to smitten Romeo the next but I thought the scenes with Firth worked best.In the supporting roles, I would single out Edward Fox's cameo as Algy's long-suffering butler, Lane; wonderful and droll, and played spot on but then you never get anything less from Edward Fox.It is nothing like Anthony Asquith's 1952 version with Michael Redgrave as Jack, Michael Denison as Algernon, and Edith Evans as Lady Bracknell but what would be the point of doing just another remake of the original?I think Oliver Parker's interpretation was bold, imaginative and worthy of note.
Cecily's dreams of the Knight in shining armour, although in one way silly, was also clever and I am sure young ladies of Edwardian era (and especially Victorian era) may have fantasised like that!I think Oscar Wilde may have been amused by this interpretation of his play; after all, he did lead rather a decadent life..
Wilde's wit remains intact and the actors deliver their lines impeccably; the audience I saw this movie with did lots of laughing.It's also beautifully shot; the period costumes and grand country estates are wonderful to look at.And Reese Witherspoon does a great job at being "English".If you like intelligent romantic comedies, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is worth seeing..
I have read that some critics object to the added scenes in this film version of Oscar Wilde's classic play, but they didn't bother me that much.
It is a 2002 British-American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Oliver Parker, based on Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners The Importance of Being Earnest.
The film was shot by English film-director Oliver Parker and it was created as screen-adaptation of the Oscar Wilde's play.
The film was shot by English film-director Oliver Parker and it was created as screen-adaptation of the Oscar Wilde's play.
The 'cast' is really impressive: Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O'Connor(2), Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson!
Anyone that loves Oscar Wilde's delicious play "The Importance of Earnest" has visited and revisited the shrine that is Anthony Asquith's 1952 film version with the unbeatable cast of Michael Redgrave, Joan Greenwood, Dorothy Tutin, Michael Denison, Margaret Rutherford and especially Dame Edith Evans' Lady Bracknell.