Very Cool!!!

Brilliant and touching

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Last night, I read Oscar Wilde's classic comedy 'The Importance of Being Earnest' for the first time after having wished to read it for quite some time, and it really was a delightful experience. I was excited to soon after see the widely praised 1952 film adaptation of the same name, which I did today, and my excitement was met with a wonderful little movie that stayed greatly true to the source material. Perhaps one could say it is so close to the source material there is little point in it really being a film, but the thing is the performances here are quite splendid, as are the technical aspects of the film, though they are quite subtle and minimalistic. The technicolor cinematography is astonishing for the eyes, and the acting on all fronts captures Wilde's wondrous wit well. Some performances I could dare claim are absolutely perfect, the two coming first to mine being the performances from Michael Denison and Edith Evans who embody almost exactly what it seems Oscar Wilde would have had in mind. Obviously, it is wonderfully written and very funny, and makes up a very entertaining and enjoyable 95 minutes.

Great comical overtones are depicted in this 1952 film which is also a test of morality, decency, and being most ethical.The film showcases the great performance of Dame Edith Evans as the mother of Gwendolyn. Her examination of the quality of the suitor for her daughter is hilarious at best since Evans exemplifies the true usual connotation that a future mother-in-law might possess.The discovery at the end of the film relating to the relationship of the two guys is a very convenient but apt way of swaying Evans as well as her change in attitude when she discovers that her future daughter-in-law is quite an heiress.A virtuous film, well acted by all. Michael Redgrave certainly is not subtle here and Margaret Rutherford, as the attendant, who lost a child in her care years before, is a joy to watch.

This "Importance of Being Earnest" is a funny movie derived from Oscar Wilde's best play. There are no clunkers in the cast and hardly a wrong step is made, even when Wilde is altered.Dame Edith Evans did not make her stage debut until fifteen years after "Earnest" first premiered, so Oscar Wilde could not have had her in mind when he created the role of Lady Bracknell; but she is so perfect it becomes difficult to imagine anyone else in the part, ever. She manages to squeeze every note of the music of human language into simple words like "found" and "handbag." Margaret Rutherford and Miles Malleson, two famous and prolific actors of the "British dotty school" come very close to being ideal for their more minor parts of (respectfully) Miss Prism and Dr. Chasuble.For the young lovers, the women are well chosen and make a fine contrast. Sultry-voiced Joan Greenwood has had a solid film career to this point (including the Alec Guiness classic "Man in a White Suit") and she knows how to deliver a comic line. Then new-comer Dorthy Tutin is so good with her lines, you'd think she was an old-hand, rather than a fresh-faced, twenty-two year old newcomer making her first major film appearance.The "young men" are sometimes thought of as more problematic. Michael Redgrave (unfortunately known these days more for being the father of Vanessa and Lynn than for his great acting) was in his forties. Mainly stage-bound actor Michael Denison was in his thirties. Denison wonderfully limns the all-important character of Algernon Moncrieff. He's young-looking and exuberant and delivers his lines with great care and consideration (Algernon is an easy character to go hammy with and Denison avoids that trap).For his part, Redgrave compensates for his age by an exquisitely-honed performance. Not only is his delivery spot-on, he practically gives a workshop on how to get a laugh with a slight twitch of a mustache or the roll of an eye. Redgrave and Denison seem to be having a high old time with their roles, while taking them seriously and never overacting.Also, be on the look-out for long-time supporting actor Richard Wattis as "Seton." Blink, and you'll miss him, as he flits in to raise a supercilious eyebrow or two.Some Wilde purists may object to the expurgation of lines. Many of the lines cut are the sort of thing that probably just struck Wilde as "a good idea at the time" and no one will miss them. Other lines may have been cut to keep this movie short, light and frothy. Wilde could be very funny, but he could also be unnecessarily cruel. I don't think he would have been a nice man to know, the way he could sling around hurtful lines to humorous effect. All his characters have been accused of "talking like Wilde" -- which is true to different degrees. A few of the missing lines were genuine, polished gems and it was a pity they weren't included. Also, the sub-plot of Grisby, which only appears in longer versions of the play, does not rear its ugly head in this short version (and good riddance). I, for one, am glad they kept the movie light and without a mean bone in its body.The movie has also been changed subtly from the stage. The stage version has the action taking place on a minimum of sets. The movie remains bound to the sound-stage and never really ventures out of doors (even in the outdoors scenes) but it adds a few more sets and more mobility. For instance, it begins in Jack's flat rather than in Algernon's. For me, this works even better than the stage version and gives Jack a good reason to throw one of Algernon's lines back in his face.So, you have a good play shorn of overmuch dialogue and a solid cast acting their hearts out. I don't know why I call it "Almost Perfect."

"The Importance of Being Earnest" is basically an adaptation of the Oscar Wilde's play for the screen, in other words, a stagy film. Nothing wrong with that, many films succeeded quite well this way, but here the caricatural acting spoils the overall effect. This is a theatrical film with performances that could work well on the stage, aided by the complicity and laughter of an audience. The acting could be even exaggerated if the film were made differently. "The Importance of Being Earnest" should have used fully the possibilities allowed by the play - respectability, social conventions, cynicism, hypocrisy, joie de vivre .... all living together under the same roof. This could have been dynamite if it had been handled right.Unfortunately, the actors are quick in using voices, smiles, eyebrows... to enhance every comic situation - this was not necessary! Oscar Wilde's play needs no underlining. In the "Importance of Being Earnest" there's a crescendo that should be considered. It starts as a light comedy, growing up slowly (innuendos and double entendres contend with respectability) ending finally in an explosion of laughter bursting out of a cathedral of joy. When I read the play as a teenager I liked it a lot - so much, in fact, that I read it again some years ago and I was hoping to repeat the fun with this film. Well, this did not occur. The film is just slightly funny. The story should be treated with the daring and irreverence that were Oscar Wilde's qualities. What we see instead is a "classic" comedy more appropriate perhaps for a museum.