The Importance Of Being Earnest-With The Film Adaptation Of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Ernest In Mind

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

The Importance Of Being Ernest, starring Colin Firth, Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Reese Witherspoon, from the famous play of the same name by Oscar Wilde, 2002   

No question Oscar Wilde was a witty, sardonic, provocative tweaker of late Victorian English mores and morals. In the end his then over-the-top private sex life did him in as the prudish side of English life that we have all come to hate (except those few who dote on the “royal family” and their fundamentally boring pursuits) beat down this talented man in hell-bent Reading Gaol. The 2002 film adaptation, there have been early ones, of Wilde most famous play, The Importance Of Being Ernest, captures on screen part of the reason why he has endured as an astute social critic of the late Victorian pall. 

What’s in a name? Well quite a bit if you follow the story line of the film. Rural bound land-owner and guardian Jack (played by Colin Firth) who yearns to escape to London as much as possible and Algy (played by Rupert Everett) who tags along with him in hothouse London are the best of friends, best of male-bonding bachelor friends. But Jack in London is going under the “war name game” of, well, Ernest as he pursues young Gwendolyn, the charge of very upper-crust Lady Bracknell (played by Dame Judi Dench) who we shall find out started out life not with a silver spoon but with a nice ass and used that hard fact to entrench herself into high society via a very convenient marriage to milord, some milord did it matter as long as the title was sound and maybe the property taxes were paid.       

Of course marriage and the property settlements associated with marriage among the upper crust was a very serious proposition in those days (still is if you look beneath the “democratic” veneer of the Mayfair swells these days particularly in London) and so an easy target for Wilde’s wit. Marriage, good marriages came at a price. Hence the spoof of marriage by making such a thing as a first name, an earnest ernest first name as a requirement of marriage assent by both the young women Gwendolyn and Cecily (played by Reese Witherspoon) must have had a lively ripple effect on those London audiences who saw how cheeky Wilde was being in putting them on. In the end, naturally, romance, light-hearted romance will win out but the game here is the repartee between and among the parties until we get there. All’s well that end’s well. Nice.