Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

tc_nafsasp I've given this 10 out of 10, because it doesn't matter how many times I watch it, I can't think of any way you could improve it. The original play is a classic, and this is a fairly good interpretation of the second, slightly shorter, version of Wilde's masterpiece. The cast is to die for, every role seems to have been written for the cast members, not the other way round! I've seen many stage versions, and although many have been excellent, I always find myself comparing them to this gem, and this always comes out on top. Probably only Hobson's Choice, with Charles Laughton, comes close to this level of perfection. Redgrave is brilliant, and shows an acting style not seen in any of his other films, contrasting wildly with the dull grey Crocker-Harris or studiously obsessive Barnes Wallace. Denison is a revelation as Algernon, a stage expert at his best, Tutin, in her film debut, is as close to an English Rose as ever portrayed on film, Greenwood, with her distinctive voice the perfect foil. Malleson and Rutherford are a match for any famous screen couple, and even Richard Wattis, Aubrey Mather and Walter Hudd as the 3 butlers are just right for their cameos. And then there's Edith Evans, in her most famous role, rightly so, delivering one of the most famous quotes ever on screen. Am I biased towards this film ? Yes, stuck on a desert island this would be my number one pick.

bkoganbing I've always felt that Oscar Wilde's work while good was better in parts than the sum of the whole. There isn't anyone with some degree of literacy who hasn't relished some delectable quote of Wilde's, either some offhand remark or a quotation from one of his. I'm willing to bet that Wilde has one of the largest sections in the English speaking world in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.But unlike his contemporary George Bernard Shaw who was prolifically writing things of social significance, Wilde took society as he saw it, wrote and amused his public about the foibles of same, but his characters have no great purpose driving their lives. Ironically for Wilde it was his whole life and how he lived and loved that became the biggest question of social significance for him to deal with.Thus it is for Ernest Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff a pair of upper class aristocratic types who apparently don't put in a 9 to 5 day, but flit about making observations of others in their station. But among other things that is uncovered is that Ernest is a foundling adopted by the Worthing family, thus making him not a suitable heir for the hand of Algernon's cousin Gwendolen played by Joan Greenwood. A game Michael Redgrave as Ernest has been playing is discovered by Michael Denison as Algy. He discovers a cigarette case inscribed from Cecily to Jack in his possession and Dennison worms a confession out of Redgrave that when he occasionally goes to the country he assumes the identity of a brother Jack for his ward Cecily played by newcomer Dorothy Tutin. Denison is quite amused by the whole thing and follows Redgrave out to the country pretending to be his brother Ernest. He also takes a liking to Tutin.On this plot which is no sillier than some American film comedies hang some of Oscar Wilde's celebrated lines. Knowing they're coming is the treat here. Everything of course is rather neatly resolved in the end with nurse Margaret Rutherford making confessions that resolve everyone's problems paternal and romantic and most of all social for the dowager head of the family Lady Brackenall played by Edith Evans. When Wilde was abruptly stopped from creating by the mores of the Victorian public his like was not seen by the English speaking world until Noel Coward who additionally performed as well as wrote. I've often thought that the only reason Coward did not suffer Wilde's fate was that he had the good sense to cultivate royalty.As for The Importance Of Being Ernest it's a play about a lot of idle people who do say some of the cleverest things ever written in English. It's bright and entertaining and the witticisms certainly haven't lost any edge in over a century.

NYLux This movie is witty, ingenious and terribly gay. It will lift your spirits to see these characters chirping away, even if you are hospitalized in a coma.Edith Evans is Lady Bracknell, she is the funniest of the bunch, with an ideal horse-face that can only be found in families with at least five generations of British gentility. Her declamatory, accented, pompous speech is a delight, even asking for a scone sounds like the proclamation of a peerage coming from her. Michael Denison is totally affected and delightfully artificial as Algernon Moncrieff, this man could only be interested in high fashion and decorators and frankly I think part of the comedy is Oscar Wilde's trying to convince us that Victorian society was so dedicated to denial and maintaining social appearances as to believe this man would want to marry a woman when we know he would be having a nervous breakdown over her gown, the length of her veil, the right texture of paper on the invitation and the endless thank you notes. Even the way he eats a muffin is decidedly gay. Michael Redgrave is Jack Worthing and not that far from Algernon in posturing, over-dressing and mannerisms. They are perfect for each other, and they could have possibly started together the first line of haut couture and interior decor in England, instead we are led to believe that he is interested in romancing and marrying that goose of Gwendolen Fairfax as played by Joan Greenwood whose only merit is consistently dressing like she is on her way to a coronation. One of her headdresses early on is a full English garden in bloom, compressed into her limited head space, a feat that would have made even Marie-Antoinette jealous. Dorothy Tutin as Cecily Cardew is perfectly annoying. She has the charm of a high-speed dentist drill, her voice is pitched and commanding, like a school mistress admonishing her charges, and is so persistently innocent and overwhelmingly pure one feels tempted to throw her head over heels into the Moulin Rouge for training on how to become a normal human being and stop being a professional virgin. Perhaps the best performance of all is the delightful Margaret Rutherford as the eccentric, literary, Miss Letitia Prism. Her facial expressions are exquisite, her perfectly full cheeks and rotund body being the product of endless afternoons consuming jam, scones and Earl Gray tea. One regrets not being able to read the voluminous manuscript that she mistook for the baby, I am sure it could be turned into a best-seller comedy.

ShootingShark Jack is in love with Gwendolen. His friend Algy is in love with Cecily. Both women want to marry a man named Ernest, so the men have both pretended to their fiancées that they are called Ernest. Such deception in matters of the heart is surely ill-advised …There have been many adaptations of Oscar Wilde's classic comic play of high society manners, but this is the timeless definitive one. It probably works best because it doesn't really try to be a movie, it's just a staging of the play with crisp early colour photography and very little fuss. All of the principal cast are pretty much perfect in these roles; Redgrave's mannered, elegant, raised-eyebrow pomposity is irresistible. Dennison has a whale of a time as the caddish Algy. Tutin and Greenwood are as fine a pair of English stuffed prunes as ever took high tea, and the always reliable Rutherford is a scream as the guilt-strewn Miss Prism. Undoubtedly top of the heap though is Evans as the formidable Lady Augusta Bracknell. Evans had a whole career worth of stage experience behind her, and makes Wilde's much-celebrated battleaxe hilarious, terrifying, slightly sozzled and unforgettable. She has so many great lines it's folly to pick one, but I think my favourite is, "Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.". The terrific cast and simple approach combine to deliver Wilde's sublime writing to the hilt. What I love so much about this play is that not a line or word is wasted; everything is funny, nuanced, part of the story, part of the comic absurdity. I generally enjoy plays, but many could do with a lot of pruning (try getting through Act IV of King Lear if you don't believe me). This on the other hand is as close to perfection as comic writing gets, as if Wilde had somehow worked out mathematically what constituted the most perfectly-formed funny stageplay. Okay it's maybe not for all tastes, but as a brilliantly observed little dig at love and aristocratic foibles it's an absolute gem. My favourite observation on Wilde is by Dorothy Parker, who said, "If with the literate I am / Impelled to try an epigram / I never seek to take the credit / We all assume that Oscar said it.". Draw the shades, make yourself a nice cuppa, and enjoy this comic delight.