You may have to change your set up on your DVD player to get sound on a stereo system. Older DVD players may not be able to reproduce the sound track.

Having seen a number of productions of the play I think this one works very well.

Do you like handsome men who are decieveing? Do you enjoy a few mishaps? Do you delight in the unexpected? Than this is the movie for you!

What a funny movive, Oscar Wilde is so brilliant in his comedy. You must listen carefully to catch all the innuendos and double meanings of his words.

You have an all star cast who are terrifically chosen for their roles and such a lovely and a colorful spectacle. It is something for everybody who likes period films to see. You have the lovely Reese Witherspoon as the excessively pretty Miss Cardew, who did a wondeful job of acquiring a British accent. My two favorites Colin Firth and Rupert Everet, who are so comedically funny together. YOu would think they were brothers. Any movie with them in it is worth seeing. The rich heiress, Gwendolyn, played by Frances O Conner, who also was brilliant and Judi Dench as her mother to top it off. It is so entertaining. You should give it a try, I am sure it won't disappoint you.

The scenario: Jack (Firth) lives two lives one in the country with his ward Cecily and another in town where he flirts with Gwendolyn. His friend Algy discovers his ruse and goes and visits him in the country unexpectedly. He falls in love with Cecily. Through out all of this Jack is trying to obtain permission to marry Gwendolyn. There are so many twists in this plot I cannot count them all. This movies is in no way predicatable. If you like to laugh, than watch this movie!

Plus, when do you get to hear Colin Firth and Rupert Everet serenade?

I won't waste time repeating the praise of other reviewers. This film is a great adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play. But did you know . . . ?

Oliver Parker, the director and screenwriter for The Importance of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband, seems to have a tremendous love of Oscarania.

The additional scenes and extra dialogue that you may not recognize actually come from the original Four Act version of The Importance of Being Earnest. When the play was produced in 1895, Oscar Wilde was asked by the manager of the theatre to shorten the play to three acts. Wilde changed things in all of the acts and combined the second and third acts to make Act 2 and changed the fourth act to Act 3 of the three act version we are familiar with today.

Such scenes as Mr. Gribsby calling on Algernon to pay his bill at the Savoy and other minor dialogue changes are from the original Four Act play.

Of course, a couple of scenes were in neither versions of the plays: ie. Ms. Prism catching Dr. Chasuble painting pictures of herself in the vestry.

Also, several brilliant lines from both versions of Wilde's masterpiece didn't find their way onto Oliver Parker's script.

Nevertheless, Oliver Parker was faithful to the original material, and his adaptation is the most up-to-date Earnest we have, with splendid actors to carry it off.

Postscript: Wilde's original Four Act Earnest has been published in Collin's Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, which is also available from Amazon.com.

Another tidbit: Parker slipped another piece of Oscarania into the movie. The song, Lady Come Down, is actually taken from Oscar Wilde's poem - Serenade. Where the song comes in in the movie, in the stage directions of the play it reads that Algernon and Jack are simply whistling a tune from a "popular British air." Serenade can incidentally be found in Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, as well as paperback collections of Wilde's poetry from Penguin Classics and Oxford World Classics (to be found on Amazon.com).

Pssst! Parker slipped more Oscarania into his film version of An Ideal Husband. See my review.

Ben.

If you are a drama major, you will want to see this film version of Oscar Wilde's brilliant play. In this light comedy of mistaken identity and play on words, the stars romp playfully through the production, seemingly having fun with the word, putting aside their star status for a smaller budget movie.

Films based on plays tend to lose the sharpness of a live performance, but the pacing of this film moves the play interestingly along. Beautiful sets and costumes provide eye-candy. However, it is the performances of the stars - Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, and Reese Witherspoon that really sells this film. Their performances are earnestly fun.

Putting a Best Word Forward.

i watched this film again for the fourth time and it actually gets better with each viewing. in my first review i gave it four stars. now it's definitely a five star film. the actors deliver the brilliant script, but the screenplay adds a lot of humourous touches, bringing out even more the comic potential of this already very funny play. my only criticism is that the tom wilkinson is a little too young to play the love interest for reese's governess. she looked more like his mother than his lover. otherwise, a truly splendid film. must see.