When it comes to comedy, the only thing more tiresome than a lack of wit is an overabundance of it. There’s definitely an overabundance of wit in The Importance of Being Earnest. Adapted from Oscar Wilde’s notoriously witty play by Oliver Parker (who first went Wilde with 1999’s An Ideal Husband), the film is a 19th-century laugh riot, full of the patented one-liners and cynical observations that make the play Wilde’s decadent masterpiece. If you know any of Wilde’s best epigrams, chances are they’re from Earnest. (My personal favourite: “I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.”) That’s the good news. The bad news is that in this case, the lines read better than they play.
The story is the kind of plot-driven comedy of manners and mistaken identity that Wilde borrowed and refined from Restoration play-wrights. Jack Worthing (Colin Firth) is a wealthy country squire who has invented a profligate brother (Ernest, hence the punny title) as a pretext for getaways to London. Jack’s friend Algernon Moncrieff (Rupert Everett) has a similar ruse, using his imaginary sick friend Bunbury to dodge family obligations. Jack, in his Ernest guise, has been courting Algy’s cousin Gwendolen (Frances O’Connor). Unfortunately, her mother, Lady Bracknell (Judi Dench) doesn’t approve of a fellow whose family pedigree amounts to a handbag left in Victoria Station. Meanwhile, Algy is most anxious to meet Jack’s young and pretty ward, Cecily (Reese Witherspoon). Knowing Cecily has obviously never met Ernest, Algy shows up at Jack’s country estate while Jack is away and woos her as Ernest. Then Jack comes home early—with an urn supposedly containing Ernest’s ashes. Then Gwendolen arrives, looking for Ernest.
At this point, hilarious hijinks are supposed to ensue. So why are the hijinks in the film only mildly hilarious? The blame rests partly with Wilde, who used the characters in the play mainly as pegs on which to hang his clever epigrams. It takes a particular sort of casual breeziness to pull off his dialogue without making it sound like dialogue, and only Everett and the infallible, archly witty Dench manage it consistently here. Firth puts his air of constipated exasperation to good use as Jack, the straight man who spends much of the play saying, “Oh, that is nonsense!” every time Algy uncorks another vintage quip. Tom Wilkinson steals a couple of scenes as the stammering Reverend Dr. Chasuble. The young ladies are less successful; O’Connor and Witherspoon try too hard to affect devil-may-care breeziness, especially in the scene of their first meeting. The usually whip-smart Witherspoon appears particularly out of her element here; she comes off as an ingenue playing an ingenue.
The other half of the blame rests with Parker, whose adaptation occasionally ventures too far into whimsical territory. Where Wilde has Jack and Algy “whistle some dreadful popular air from a British opera” to suck up to Gwendolen and Cecily, Parker concocts a silly scene with Algy on piano and Jack strumming a guitar while they sing an arrangement of Wilde’s “Serenade (for Music)” by composer Charlie Mole. At least they get the “dreadful” part right. Parker’s big mistake is assuming this kind of campy flippancy is appropriate to the material. In fact, the embellishment is unnecessary and even counterproductive—it’s like looking at a classic sculpture after someone has slapped lipstick on it.
Still, this is a film worth seeing. There’s great chemistry between Everett and Firth (a lot more than there is between Everett and Witherspoon, which is entirely appropriate to the material), and almost every scene benefits greatly from Luciana Arrighi’s production design. Arrighi, who worked on Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility as well as the last few Merchant-Ivory visual feasts, is probably the best period designer working today. Her sumptuously detailed interiors and lush exteriors are as enjoyable to watch as Wilde’s brilliant lines are to hear—even if it does get exhausting after a while.
(3/4)