The Importance of Being Earnest 2002

Loren King, Boston Globe: ...sharp performances and a literate script that never has to resort to cheap humor to be sidesplittingly funny. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Parker dams the flow of Wilde's brilliant comic revelations and reversals with contrived visuals. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Those who prefer the play as a gleaming comedy of manners may object, but viewers who enjoy more physical humor are likely to revel in the film's deliciously barbed dialogue and frenetic chemistry. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Beautifully done. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: Nice try, mixed result. Read more

Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune: The Importance of Being Earnest resonates and inspires rapid-fire bouts of laughter, perhaps even a few giggles from the author himself, whom posterity has rewarded the last laugh. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: For all its distractions and additions, The Importance of Being Earnest is still a reasonably entertaining costume comedy. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: What Wilde regarded as 'a trivial comedy for serious people,' Parker has made over into a trivial comedy for trivial people. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Even half-baked, "Earnest" is still delicious. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: Director Parker's style is sometimes at odds with the playwright's, but the film builds up steam in time for the classic comedy's intricate finish. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Parker keeps things light and lively, and the cast never trips over Wilde's eloquence. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: In trying to make Earnest more of a visual romp than it needs to be, [Parker] almost stomps the Wildeness out of its literary wit. But he doesn't. The good humor and lively acting survive. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Somewhere buried beneath the frippery and undergrad-comedy-revue jokiness of Oliver Parker's adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest is Oscar Wilde, yearning to get a word in edgewise. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: ...a ho-hum affair, always watchable yet hardly memorable. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: This Earnest misses the play's biggest joke: There's nothing the least bit earnest about any of it. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: [Everett] mugs away desperately as the feckless Algernon Moncrieff and overplays Mutt to the Jeff of Colin Firth, who renders earnest Jack Worthing in his usual key of hunky worrywart as he struggles opposite Frances O'Connor's wan Gwendolen. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: This may be a less than ideal "Earnest," but it still has delights... Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Wilde subtitled his masterpiece "A Trivial Comedy for Serious People." This movie seems intent on being a trivial comedy for trivial people. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The film is a fragile frolic, but the real theme enjoyed by countless audiences through the years -- the importance of being earnest instead of deceitful in matters of the heart -- still shines through the frosting. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Though Mr. Parker's The Importance of Being Earnest is pleasant enough in its casting and performances, it doesn't work as it should. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: While The Importance of Being Earnest offers opportunities for occasional smiles and chuckles, it doesn't give us a reason to be in the theater beyond Wilde's wit and the actors' performances. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The Importance of Being Earnest, so thick with wit it plays like a reading from Bartlett's Familiar Quotations Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Rupert Everett gets Wilde in his bones, but this well-cast adaptation somehow feels obvious and overblown. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: To take a big fat wrecking ball to one of the surefire delights of world theater -- well, that requires energy and invention ... Oliver Parker does that here, and the result is a frustrating, boring mess. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: There are moments of hilarity to be had. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: You might suppose that Oscar Wilde's theatrical evergreen is indestructible. But that would be to reckon without the intervention of 'writer'/director Parker, who really makes a pig's ear of this silk purse. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Director Oliver Parker labors so hard to whip life into The Importance of Being Earnest that he probably pulled a muscle or two. Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: [An] utterly miscalculated film adaptation of Wilde's play. Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: A proficient skim of the Man With the Green Carnation's wit and wisdom, piped by an able crew of quick-tongued ventriloquists. Read more