The Importance of Being Earnest 2002-Oscar Wilde and Colin Firth!

The Importance of Being Earnest 2002

Well, as I continue my happy journey through the favorites of my DVD collection, The Importance of Being Earnest jumped into my hands. There are times when you need something funny, light, gorgeous to look at and with just a hint of biting satire for tang and this one really fits the bill.

Frances O'Connor, Colin Firth, Rupert Everett and Reese Witherspoon in The Importance of Being Earnest

Arguably Oscar Wilde's greatest play, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is mostly romping farce but has, of course, some social commentary at it's core. This makes it perfect for the screen and director Oliver Parker does a wonderful job adapting it. Visually stunning and with a musical score which helps the romping pace of this film, you will laugh and totally lose yourself. The story centres on the two couples above, Frances O'Connor is luminous and Colin Firth even gets to sing in this. He has a rather funny reedy little voice, which you have likely heard in Mama Mia but here he gets to accompany himself on a ukulele which again adds some comedy (or was it a guitar?-oh, goody, I have to watch it again!).

Rupert Everett and Colin Firth in The Importance of Being Earnest

Rupert Everett and Colin Firth have worked together before, very early in their careers in  Another Country from 1984 and you can tell that they enjoy each other's company. As friends (or are they brothers?) the banter is as wonderful as those suits they are wearing.

Reese Witherspoon and Rupert Everett in The Importance of Being Earnest

Reese Witherspoon shows that she is not just another pretty face by holding her own amongst these greats of the British screen. She is refreshing and sweet and really gets the joke.

Rupert Everett, Judi Dench and Reese Witherspoon in The Importance of Being Earnest

Judi Dench is just the icing on the cake as Lady Bracknell, whipping off the wonderful lines like the pro she is.

Lady Bracknell: To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness. ***********************************************************************************

Jack: I don't actually know who I am by birth. I was... well, I was found.
Lady Bracknell: Found?
Jack: Yes. The late Mr. Thomas Cardew, an old gentlemen of a kindly disposition found me and gave me the name of Worthing because he happened to have a first class ticket to Worthing at the time. Worthing is a place in Sussex. It's a seaside resort.
Lady Bracknell: And where did this charitable gentlemen with the first class ticket to the seaside resort find you?
Jack: In a handbag.
Lady Bracknell: [closes eyes briefly] A handbag?
Jack: Yes, Lady Bracknell, I was in a hand bag. A somewhat large... black... leather handbag with handles... to it.
[pause]
Lady Bracknell: An ordinary handbag.
Lady Bracknell: And where did this Mr. James... or, Thomas Cardew come across this ordinary handbag?
Jack: The cloak room at Victoria Station. It was given to him in mistake for his own...
Lady Bracknell: [Shocked] The cloak room at Victoria Station?
Jack: Yes. The Brighton line.
Lady Bracknell: The line is immaterial.
[begins tearing up notes]
Lady Bracknell: Mr. Worthing. I must confess that I feel somewhat bewildered by what you have just told me. To be born, or at any rate bred in a handbag, whether it have handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life which reminds one of the worst excesses of the French revolution, and I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to?

***********************************************************************************

So again, if you haven't seen this one, it is an easy recommendation for me to make. If you have seen it, then you may want to pull it out for another viewing as I have done quite happily.

Enjoy the weekend my friends and I hope this made you smile!!!