AllMovie

The weightlessness of The Importance of Being Earnest makes it clear why Miramax released this trifle as counterprogramming to Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones rather than during its traditional Oscar season. A mistaken-identity farce to rival Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde's play has always been considered a classic comedy of manners/errors. But Oliver Parker's film suffers a bit by following the recent deluge of British period comedies, among them The Ideal Husband (also starring Rupert Everett and directed by Parker) and Emma. Everyone is having a jolly good time, and the production is as handsome as one could want, but there's no fresh sense of rediscovery, which might have accompanied the film had it come out a couple years earlier. It's so trivial that there's also no sense of peril about the fragile relations falling short of a happy conclusion, nor the whole enterprise unraveling under the stern displeasure of Judi Dench's imperious Lady Bracknell. Fortunately, no one's really expecting a near tragedy, especially with that giddy soundtrack and the ready grins of all the performers. While most of the cast is accustomed to this milieu, Reese Witherspoon acquits herself surprisingly well in the new form, her natural bird-like prissiness used to good effect and her accent passable. Overall, Parker has an exquisitely literate, humorous, and watchable film on his hands, and the fact that it doesn't stick long after leaving the theater is kind of irrelevant.