Product Description

Starring Reese Witherspoon (LEGALLY BLONDE), Colin Firth (BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY), and Rupert Everett (MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING), here is the hilarious adventure of two dashing young bachelors and the outrageous deceptions they find themselves in over love! Whenever Worthing (Firth) wants to leave his dull country life behind, he makes visits to the city posing as his fictitious "brother" Ernest. There, he becomes smitten with the ravishing Gwendolen (Frances O'Connor, A.I.). But when Worthing is in town, his playboy pal Algy (Everett) is in the country and falling for Worthing's young and beautiful ward, Cecily (Witherspoon) -- while also impersonating Ernest! Pandemonium ensues when these two would-be Ernests find themselves face-to-face and in the predicament of explaining who they really are!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1596 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-11-12
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
Splendidly adapted from the wittiest play in the English language, The Importance of Being Earnest stars Colin Firth as an English gentleman who pretends to be his own brother, named Ernest, so he can enjoy himself in the city without besmirching his reputation at his country estate. Unfortunately, he's just fallen in love with a young woman (Frances O'Connor) who insists that she can only marry a man named Ernest--and when Firth's best friend (Rupert Everett) goes to Firth's country estate pretending to be this same brother Ernest, he falls in love with Firth's ward (Reese Witherspoon), who similarly feels that Ernest is the perfect name for a husband... The absurdity of the plot is matched by the exquisite cleverness of the dialogue, and the performances--particularly Dame Judi Dench as Everett's fearsome aunt--are excellent. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
An impish, sunny, and perfectly unnecessary production of the Wilde classic, directed by Oliver Parker. The Anthony Asquith version, from 1952, was stagey and artificial, which felt right for Wilde's confection. This movie is set in a counterfeit London of top hats, naughty music-hall girls, and primitive automobiles. Frances O'Connor, as Gwendolen Fairfax, is sexually very knowing, and gets the name Ernest tattooed on her rump. Colin Firth is a good Jack Worthing, but Rupert Everett's limited comic resources are exposed in the role of Algernon-he's arch rather than funny. Judi Dench makes the odd mistake of playing Lady Bracknell as if she were a real person, rather than the most entertaining caricature in the history of the theatre. With Edward Fox, who mumbles superbly as Algie's rarely paid manservant. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Doesn't live up to the hype, not funny at all
The Importance of Being Earnest

Well, I've never seen the play or read it, so I can't compare this movie to the play, but the reviews that say the dialogue was clever and witty are wrong, very wrong. The dialogue was boring. We had a difficult time watching the whole thing and we're fans of Witherspoon, Everett, and Firth. The plot is very convoluted, with twists and turns and a surprise ending.

Jack Worthing (Colin Firth) has made up a fictitious brother named Earnest. When he leaves his country estate and goes to town, he pretends to be Earnest, leaving unpaid bills all over town and behaving badly. This way he doesn't ruin his country reputation. His best friend, Algernon (Rupert Everett) discovers a gift to Jack that is signed "Love Cecily" and becomes very interested in that country estate of Jack's and this woman Cecily who apparently lives there (she's Jack's eighteen year-old ward). So Algernon takes off for Jack's country estate while Jack is still in town and Algernon pretends to be the fictitious brother Earnest. Cecily (Reese Witherspoon) falls in love with Algie and he for her, but she is in love with Earnest, not Algie. In fact, she makes fun of that name when he brings it up.

Back in town, Jack falls in love with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen (Frances O'Connor). She of course thinks his name is Earnest and has always had this fantasy that she would someday marry a man named Earnest. She even tattoos the name on her derriere. When Jack proposes and Gwendolen accepts, her mother (Judi Dench) says the marriage can't take place because Jack has no parentage (he was literally found in a bag and raised an orphan). Depressed and determined to set his house in order (and discover his parentage somehow), Jack shows up at his country estate to discover Algernon pretending to be the fictitious Earnest. At the same time, solicitors from the city show up to arrest Earnest for all those unpaid bills in town.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the maid reveals that Jack is none other than the long lost younger brother of Algernon's. Yes, weird, and a bit far-fetched. So everyone ends up living happily ever after, because as luck would have it, Jack's real name given at birth was, tada, Earnest. So Gwendolen doesn't have to have that nasty tattoo removed. Needless to say, we did not find this plot as funny as the critics did. We were bored.

Oscar Wilde Classic put to film.
Great movie! Adds nice back story that you would not find in the book. Very entertaining.

The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the wittiest comedies in English drama. This engaging production makes the most of every opportunity for comedy. The film strikes a balance of being true to the time period while remaining relevant to a modern audience.