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| Importance Of Being Earnest, The |
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  (6/10)
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Runtime: 97 m |
| Public Rating: 8.24 (17 votes) |
Director: Oliver Parker |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy/Romance |
Year: 2002 |
| Writer(s): Oliver Parker |
| Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov |
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Apparently, Oliver Parker is aiming to do for Oscar Wilde's witty social plays what Frank Darabont did for Stephen King's retro-prison novels; the problem is that he doesn't do it as well, and he's not as faithful to the tone of the works. While The Importance Of Being Earnest is an improvement over Parker's previous muddled excursion, An Ideal Husband, that's not saying much. That earlier effort veered from awkward, unconvincing slapstick to deadly earnest and dull melodrama; this merely bridges the gap between smooth social comedy and quick-to-pass melodrama. The problem, still, is that nowhere in the original play of Earnest will you find anything to be played for awkward gulps - any such moments are Parker's contrivance. So what's strangest about this new effort is that the funniest, best moments are invented wholesale by Parker.
Awkwardly opened up for the big screen, Wilde's play loses its natural rhythm. The original is three acts, each of which plays without scene divisions. Desperately, Parker scatters the characters about London and, later, the countryside so as to avoid "staginess" - but simultaneously confounding any rhythmic build-up. The film's early innovations are mainly of this tampering variety, as Algy (Rupert Everett, initially sporting a ghastly mustache) and Jack (Colin Firth) run around, beginning conversations in night clubs and implausibly continuing them in the street. Comic moments become awkwardly contrived and the dramatic ones are no better, as the quest for marriage is infused with uncalled-for (by Wilde, anyhow) gravity - and the two impulses impede each other in any case. Charlie Mole's score underlines this, awkwardly making rapid transitions from pseudo-romantic piano moments to bouncy-comic piano-guitar combinations.
As the action switches to the countryside, the new material grows bolder, as whole characters and scenes are added. Two of the boldest, wholesale fabrications are also the film's funniest moments: prim Miss Prism (Anna Massey) discovering the lovestruck Dr. Chasuble's (Tom Wilkinson) drawings of her, a scene which depends upon quick timing and a subtlety not belonging to theater, and the other being the insertion of Algy and Jack serenading their loves Cecily (Reese Witherspoon; not quite miscast, but just about as dull as everyone else seems to be; oddly enough, no one stands out in this fairly excellent cast) and Gwendolyn (Frances O'Connor) with "Lady Come Down," a cliched but effective schtick. Wilde's play depends on tautness and expert delivery, but the most pleasing moments in Parker's film are far more reminiscent of the more relaxed country-estate jaunts of P.G. Wodehouse. If the film is ultimately amusing (more in the second half than in the first, which tries too hard), it hardly does justice to its source, and seems more like an exploitation of a play's reputation than a respectful version of it, and a fairly awkward one at that. Fortunately, there are only so many Oscar Wilde comedies left to ransack, and a multitude of Wodehouse comedies waiting for a definitive cinematic treatment.
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