DIRECTOR: Oliver Parker (An Ideal Husband)

PRODUCER: Barnaby Thompson.
The film is produced by the independent production company Fragile Films in cooperation with Miramax.

CAST: Colin Firth (John Worthing, J.P.), Rupert Everett (Algernon Moncrieff), Judi Dench (Lady Bracknell), Frances O'Connor (Hon. Gwendolen Fairfax), Reese Witherspoon (Cecily Cardew), Anna Massey (Miss Prism), Tom Wilkinson (Dr. Chasuble) et al.

STORYLINE: The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy about mistaken identity set in English high society during the 1890s. With Earnest, Irish-born Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) crafted his final and most lasting play - by all accounts, a masterpiece of modern comedy and perhaps Wilde's best-known play.

Earnest fixates on the manners and morals of the pretentious and the manor-born, skewering all and sundry with some of Wilde’s finest collection of epigrams and nasty asides.

Filled with wit and wisdom, it tells the tale of Jack Worthing (Firth) and Algernon Moncrieff (Everett). Both young men have taken to bending the truth in order to add a dash of excitement to their lives. Jack has invented an imaginary brother, Earnest, whom he uses as an excuse to escape from his dull home in the country and frolic in town. Algernon uses a similar technique, only in reverse: His imaginary friend, Bunbury, provides a convenient and frequent method of taking adventures in the country. However, their deceptions eventually cross paths, resulting in a series of crises that threaten to spoil their romantic pursuits: Jack of his love Gwendolen Fairfax (O'Connor), and Algernon of his belle Cecily Cardew (Witherspoon). Judi Dench plays the disapproving Lady Bracknell.

From the Hollywood Reporter, April 2002: /.../ As for Colin Firth, who plays Jack, director Parker noted, "Colin I know from way back. He's a dear fellow and, also, I think what I like about him is that the role Jack is often a bit of a stooge to Algy. Algy tends to have the funny lines and having played Jack I sort of understood that it's not necessarily appealing. But in my adaptation I was quite concerned (about) that. In some ways, his is the story with the most change to it. I was quite interested to try and get a little big more compassion into the story than is normally the point. I would say originally its intention is more satirical and wickedly sharp. With time, the objects of satire are perhaps less evident and particularly on screen I felt it important to try and create this world where you give them a context you believe in a bit more. The great thing about film is that you can actually draw out the world they're living in much more and immediately you're getting a rapport between them and their environment."
"And Colin, I find, is a terrifically detailed and sensitive performer. He can bring the sensitivity and complexity (to the role). What I was really thrilled with was I feel there's a lot of range to him in this part. I think there are moments that I was surprised that they're sweetly affecting. I wasn't quite sure how they'd turn out. (And that's) partly because of the rapport between the two guys. They worked together many years ago on 'Another Country' on screen and that rapport is there. On set it's there. I'm pretty confident that that's what sort of (resulted in) what they do on screen."
"Rupert is a terrifically sharp-witted fellow and you've got to keep your own about you. And Colin and he had some terrifically good fun almost fraternal tangles. It was so clearly aimed at what they were doing and they became even firm friends, I think, by the end, which was lovely." More on Firth and Everett working together again, here

13 May 2002 - N.Y.C. film premiere From Ananova: Dame Judi Dench wowed thousands of waiting fans as she arrived for the premiere of her latest film, The Importance of Being Earnest. Not even the appearance of Rupert Everett and Jade Jagger on a Soho rickshaw could redirect the enthusiasm with which the fans greeted the screen legend. Dame Judi, wearing a black trouser suit, with an orange scarf over the left shoulder, immediately signed autographs and pose for photographs. She plays Lady Bracknell in the film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners. Tom Wilkinson was next to arrive, greeting fans, signing autographs and posing for photographs. He said of the film: "Wilde is subversive and people like that. He's a surrealist." His co-star Everett, who returned from inside the cinema on two occasions to the rapturous applause of the waiting fans, described the film as a "Carry-On", saying: "It's a really funny English story." Other celebrities attending the glittering bash included Helena Bonham Carter, Ruby Wax and Angus Dayton. Other stars arriving at the premiere, at the Odeon West End cinema, in Central London, included Frances O'Connor, who plays Gwendolen, Anna Massey (Miss Prism) and Tom Wilkinson, who recreates the role of Reverend Chasuble. But Colin Firth (John Worthing) was filming in France and unable to get away to be at the premiere - much to his fans' disappointment. The film's director, Oliver Parker said he believed he had "captured the essence" of the theatre production to transform it successfully into a cinematic success. From Variety 16 May 2002: A Wilde night for 'Earnest'. Weinstein braves wet weather to tout Brit pic. Co-stars Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon and Frances O'Connor reunite at the bow of "The Importance of Being Earnest." Ladies, gentlemen and perhaps a handful of secret Bunburyists all braved a torrential downpour Monday night to enjoy the prime of Wildean classic "The Importance of Being Earnest." Wet weather added to the Englishness of the evening, which started off with salutations from producer Barnaby Thompson, who took a moment before the unspooling to thank Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein: "I can't think of a better friend to British cinema -- long may he continue." Civility continued at the after-party at the Hudson Hotel, where polite lines formed around the bars and buffet, and no one had to be kicked out of reserved seats. "I love the process of taking something with only a narrow audience and bringing it wide," said writer-director Oliver Parker, on tackling such a well-known play. "Wilde was a radical populist entertainer, and now he tends to be the preserve of an elite audience -- which irritates the hell out of me." Co-star Colin Firth agreed: "It wouldn't be humanly possible to make this play more accessible than we've made it." Joining in the jubilee were co-stars Frances O'Connor and Reese Witherspoon, along with guests Ryan Phillipe, Bob Balaban, Stanley Tucci, Mark Ruffalo, Joshua Jackson, Alexis Bledel, Rosario Dawson, Paul Rudd, Salman Rushdie, Tina Brown and Harry Evans. Date: From the Los Angeles Daily News 17 May: SALMAN RUSHDIE, who went underground after Ayatollah Khomeini issued a death sentence, was out on the town again on Monday. At the New York premiere of "The Importance of Being Earnest," he sat with two of the film's stars, COLIN FIRTH and FRANCES O'CONNOR.