The Importance of Being Earnest

Having read the play in a school English lesson, to watch the film was interesting. Overall it was absolutely fantastic, but between us we managed to come up with some bad points, that could have been avoided. We thought the actress who played Gwendolen, as brilliant as she was, seemed a little too old for both John Worthing and Cecily. In the scene when her and Cecily had found out about John and Algernon being John and Algernon instead of Ernest and Ernest, it seemed to some of us as if Gwendolen looked almost like Cecily's mother. The tatoo seemed far too out of place with the rest of the film and I think they could have found a better way to convey that Gwendolen loved the name Ernest. They seemed to miss the entire point of the play. The scenes with the discoveries of Algernon and John actually being Algernon and John seemed rather put aside. It dissapointed us, as we felt it was a significant part of the story and had paid a lot of attention to it in lessons. There were a few other parts that I found a bit modern for how I'd imagained it, and Cecily's fantasies were thought of as unnecessary. There were some very funny, well played parts though. When Lady Bracknell was interviewing John raised a positive argument in our lesson. We found it was done very well, and veryt funnily. The piano moving into the house was also done well. The director clearly took advantage at this. It couldn't have been done on stage, so to have it in the film was well placed. The bulk of the casting was brilliant. Colin Firth and Judi Dench were absolutely fantastic (in my opinion), and the actress to play Cecily was superb. I don't think Colin Firth and the actress to play Gwendolen worked with each other too well, so I thought it ruined the sparks and the love between them as characters. Over all it was a truly phenomenal film. I'd recommend it to anyone - The Importance of Being Earnest.