The Importance of being earnest [DVD]

Film adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s brilliant play “The Importance of being earnest” (1895), adapted and directed for the screen by Anthony Asquith, is probably the best-known comedy of manners in the world. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff are friends, both bachelors operating in English society hoping to find love in a proper match. Each man has spun lies about a fake identity in order to achieve romance with Gwendolyn Fairfax and Cecily Cardew, respectively. When the two couples meet up at Cecily’s place of residence, their lies unfurl and the true selves of both are revealed. Wilde’s last play is a satire on English society and manners, wonderfully sending up the portentousness and pomposity of the upper classes. Two particularly memorable characters are the boorish snob Lady Bracknell and the dithering governess Miss Prism (the latter played with import here by Margaret Rutherford). Asquith never quite transcends the script’s theatrical origins, but does successfully recreate the cadence and spirit of Wilde’s sardonic, barbed wit.