The Importance of Being Earnest - Criterion Collection Rating: Release Date: 25 June, 2002 Retail Price: $29.95 OUR Price: $26.99 You SAVE: $2.96! Cast: Michael Redgrave Richard Wattis Joan Greenwood Margaret Rutherford

The Importance of Being Earnest - Criterion Collection Reviews

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the old versus the new - 50 years' difference

The old 1952 version (Michael Redgrave, Michael Denison, Joan Greenwood, Dorothy Tutin) and the new 2002 version (Reese Witherspoon, Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Francis O'Connor) each has its own merits.

The old one had characters who looked sinisterly funny and a very comic looking Lady Bracknell (Edith Evans) with a pronounced accent. She captured every scene and is the one to watch in the 1952 movie, just look at the DVD cover. Even the costumes in the 1952 movie looked more conspicuous, colourful and exaggerating.

The new one have big handsome stars (especially a lively and young Reese Witherspoon who look convincingly 18 of age), and beautiful scenery of the English countryside. In one shot, imagine the main players picking lavendar in a stretching field of purple. Also, the rivarlies between the sophisticated Frances O'Connor and the young Reese Witherspoon and the competition between Colin Firth and Rupert Everette are more thoughtfully presented. Furthermore, the ending was more suspenseful, not unlike a Sherlock Holmes mystery, and the way Jack Worthing (Colin Firth) disclosed his real name to the anticipating audience had a more intriguing twist.

The dialogues in both versions were more or less the same. But I believe the older version has included more of the original dialogues. I would say the 2002 movie is the more pleasing to the eyes and romantic while the 1952 movie is more of a comedy and a play, as Oscar Wilde intended it to be. Which one to watch? Take both.


You know why it's important!
Next to live stage dramatization, this is a winner! It's worth seeing/hearing again and again.

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