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Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

like many adaptations from Oscar Wilde work, it is the mark of director who dominates. and, course, his message. result - a nice, seductive, spiced film. lovely if you ignore the original play. because, the characters are pieces of a new game. and, for the reader of play, the only satisfaction could be the cast. and the imagination for replace each actor in the skin of authentic character. the virtue - a good kick to read the play. to discover Oscar Wilde out of too many adaptations of his work. because "The Importance of Being Earnest" represents more than a cool comedy. and this is the start point for see this adaptation. after you read the play, off course.

This sad disappointment of a movie is what happens when you gather a group of top-notch actors together, give them one of the wittiest and funniest plays in the English language, and then put them under the direction of a film-maker who does not trust his material (which is a shame) and who furthermore believes that by tweaking it he may "improve" on it and render it more palatable for modern audiences (which is a scandal).To do director Oliver Parker some justice, "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a lighter-than-air comedy of social mores and is -- in its very essence -- not cinematic, but theatrical, as was its creator, Oscar Wilde. The witty absurdities tossed off by Wilde's characters can only truly become airborne in a theatrical milieu. An attentively listening theater audience engages in a sympathetic act of complicity with the actors on stage, one in which "the delighting ear outstrips the wicked tongue." But a movie camera is an eye, not an ear; it cannot provide the necessary complicity that would allow Wilde's arch dialogue to levitate. Robbed of that complicity, the characters die and the dialogue falls flat. Perhaps it is too much to expect this play ever to be given a 100% successful cinematic make-over.Parker cannot be faulted for trying to translate this play into a cinematic medium; he is, however, guilty of ham-handed 're-writes,' unnecessary excursions, ill-considered excisions, and a feckless attempt to jam his cast into cinematic "dress" that doesn't fit them and that leaves them looking foolish.Watching this film, I felt badly for all the fine actors ensnared in it. I'm betting Judi Dench has a superb Lady Bracknell somewhere in her... but it isn't on display here.My advice is to skip this movie if you're considering seeing or renting it. Try the much better '52 Anthony Asquith movie with an amusingly rebarbative Edith Evans at the top of her form.

Do not see this. If you like the Oscar Wilde, the play, or have heard good things about it, see the 1952 version. That was really good. The music is really weird and confusing, the characters are completely changed from the way Oscar Wilde meant them to be, and (I won't give it away), the ending is stupid. It has a great cast, but I was extremely disappointed in the way it was executed.And now I need to fill up a few lines. The old version was great. I loved the characters, and the way it wasn't changed from the play. Damn, how do people write this much? The recurring famous paintings theme was a little weird. Very distracting.

I know Wilde's masterful play very well. I have read it, seen several productions of it and acted in scenes from it. You would think that with this basic material, a brilliant cast, lots of money, a sumptuous production and a truckload of talented people, this would be a great success. WRONG! From the first moments, hearing that totally inappropriate musical score with its strange melange of swing, ragtime and 1920s jazz, all totally anachronistic for the time depicted in this play, the mid-1890s, I knew the viewer was in for trouble. And was I right about that!This was the strangest and most confusing bit of nonsense I have ever seen. This ego-driven production (the director/screenwriter's ego) threw out much of Wilde's effervescent dialogue and substituted campy "shtick" for it, turning Wilde's subtle comedy of manners into a strangely stupid modern "interpretation", complete with tasteless flashbacks and intercuts. I'm surprised this "director" didn't add a few four letter words, farts and burps, which seem to be the current substitutes for comedy in today's films, stage plays and television. We're spared those here, thankfully, but not much else.I don't know what Dame Judi thought of this chance to immortalize her take on Lady Bracknell. This misguided director turns what could have been a brilliant characterization into a shrill one-note performance. Dame Judi does "indignant" and "imperious" very well, but that's not all Lady Bracknell is. And Dench can display these qualities and be funny at the same time, as she does so brilliantly on the BBC series "As Time Goes By". This accomplished actor hardly has a chance for subtlety, or comedy, for that matter, in this mess of a film.I was wishing for more, a chance to see a great actor (Dench) in a great play. How disappointing this was.