Movie: The Importance of Being Earnest
May. 26th, 2002 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fabrisseHe missed the point.
The son of a bitch missed the point of the whole play. Oliver Parker screwed up the punchline, screwed with the plot, and I can only hope screwed the actors. That way they got *something* out of it.
Disclaimers before I begin: I've read the play; I've seen the original movie with Michael Redgrave and Joan Greenwood; I've never seen the play performed. I have, however, seen both *An Ideal Husband* and *Lady Windermere's Fan* in live performances, and I saw Mr. Parker's film of *An Ideal Husband*.
Where to begin in my excoriation? How about the pacing? Yes, I'll start with the pacing. It's slow. Except where it's frantic. Perhaps Mr. Parker was doing it consciously to mimic the ragtime music that he has Algernon playing at various points. Unfortunately it doesn't work. Drawing room comedy needs rhythm. If it doesn't feel like the actors are speaking exquisite epigrams from the tops of their brains, it becomes an exercise in futility.
My biggest worry about the movie is similar to my problem with Mr. Parker's production of *An Ideal Husband*. In both cases Mr. Wilde was arguing for truth and tolerance; in both cases Mr. Parker sides with lies and hoodwinking.
SPOILER ALERT
Still Reading? On your own head be it.
The entire play of *The Importance of Being Earnest* builds to the final line, where Jack Worthing, having discovered that he is really Ernest Moncrieff states that he finally knows "the importance of being earnest."
It's froth, but the most important thing is that, after pretending for the entire play that he is someone named Ernest, he turns out to be someone who really is named Ernest. Mr. Parker changes it to John, and has the newly made Moncrieff lie.
He also chooses to open up the play by having flashbacks from the vantage point of the baby in the handbag, interspersed Pre-Raphaelite daydreams from Cecily Cardew (which makes her seem even younger than her supposed 18 years and slightly stupid), and a serenade from Messrs. Everett and Firth.
The serenade goes on too long, but does reveal that they both have reasonably pleasant voices. Mr Everett is better than average on the piano and Mr. Firth no worse than average on the guitar. The lyrics are from a poem by Wilde, and they do fit the situation. However, it slows the pace at a time when, in a stage production, it would pick up and build toward the climax.
I realize that I'm taking a minor piece of modern culture far too seriously. But it bothers me. As a culture we seem to be turning Oscar Wilde into a martyr for his sexual orientation. The one thing that can be said is that he was always honest. Even the fateful lawsuit occurred because he was honest about his relationship with Bosie. Wilde didn't run when he had the chance. He was an innately honest man whose plays pled for tolerance.
But in both this film and *An Ideal Husband*, Mr. Parker celebrates the triumph of lies. And very few people have called him on it. So many people seem to think that the plays needed modernizing or alterations to make them acceptable to a modern audience. A complete subversion of the themes is not the way to connect a play or a playwright to a modern audience. All it does is perpetuate the lies.
The son of a bitch missed the point of the whole play. Oliver Parker screwed up the punchline, screwed with the plot, and I can only hope screwed the actors. That way they got *something* out of it.
Disclaimers before I begin: I've read the play; I've seen the original movie with Michael Redgrave and Joan Greenwood; I've never seen the play performed. I have, however, seen both *An Ideal Husband* and *Lady Windermere's Fan* in live performances, and I saw Mr. Parker's film of *An Ideal Husband*.
Where to begin in my excoriation? How about the pacing? Yes, I'll start with the pacing. It's slow. Except where it's frantic. Perhaps Mr. Parker was doing it consciously to mimic the ragtime music that he has Algernon playing at various points. Unfortunately it doesn't work. Drawing room comedy needs rhythm. If it doesn't feel like the actors are speaking exquisite epigrams from the tops of their brains, it becomes an exercise in futility.
My biggest worry about the movie is similar to my problem with Mr. Parker's production of *An Ideal Husband*. In both cases Mr. Wilde was arguing for truth and tolerance; in both cases Mr. Parker sides with lies and hoodwinking.
SPOILER ALERT
Still Reading? On your own head be it.
The entire play of *The Importance of Being Earnest* builds to the final line, where Jack Worthing, having discovered that he is really Ernest Moncrieff states that he finally knows "the importance of being earnest."
It's froth, but the most important thing is that, after pretending for the entire play that he is someone named Ernest, he turns out to be someone who really is named Ernest. Mr. Parker changes it to John, and has the newly made Moncrieff lie.
He also chooses to open up the play by having flashbacks from the vantage point of the baby in the handbag, interspersed Pre-Raphaelite daydreams from Cecily Cardew (which makes her seem even younger than her supposed 18 years and slightly stupid), and a serenade from Messrs. Everett and Firth.
The serenade goes on too long, but does reveal that they both have reasonably pleasant voices. Mr Everett is better than average on the piano and Mr. Firth no worse than average on the guitar. The lyrics are from a poem by Wilde, and they do fit the situation. However, it slows the pace at a time when, in a stage production, it would pick up and build toward the climax.
I realize that I'm taking a minor piece of modern culture far too seriously. But it bothers me. As a culture we seem to be turning Oscar Wilde into a martyr for his sexual orientation. The one thing that can be said is that he was always honest. Even the fateful lawsuit occurred because he was honest about his relationship with Bosie. Wilde didn't run when he had the chance. He was an innately honest man whose plays pled for tolerance.
But in both this film and *An Ideal Husband*, Mr. Parker celebrates the triumph of lies. And very few people have called him on it. So many people seem to think that the plays needed modernizing or alterations to make them acceptable to a modern audience. A complete subversion of the themes is not the way to connect a play or a playwright to a modern audience. All it does is perpetuate the lies.
