Watch The Importance of Being Earnest Videos

Release Date: 2002

Cast: Tom Wilkinson, Reese Witherspoon, Rupert Everett, Kiera Chaplin, Patrick Godfrey, Judi Dench, Anna Massey, Frances O'Connor, Charles Kay, Colin Firth, Edward Fox

Categories: Movies, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Drama, Period Piece, Romance Film, Costume Drama, Comedy, Drama Film

The Importance of Being Earnest is a 2002 British-American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Oliver Parker, based on Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners play of the same name. The original music score is composed by Charlie Mole. The film grossed about $8.3 million in North America. The story revolves around two men in Victorian England, John (Jack) Worthing (Colin Firth) and Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff (Rupert Everett). Whenever Jack travels to London from his Hertfordshire estate, he says he is going to see his (fictitious) wayward brother Ernest. Once in London he keeps his... MORE

The Importance of Being Earnest is a 2002 British-American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Oliver Parker, based on Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners play of the same name. The original music score is composed by Charlie Mole. The film grossed about $8.3 million in North America. The story revolves around two men in Victorian England, John (Jack) Worthing (Colin Firth) and Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff (Rupert Everett). Whenever Jack travels to London from his Hertfordshire estate, he says he is going to see his (fictitious) wayward brother Ernest. Once in London he keeps his privacy by calling himself Ernest. This tactic is especially important as his beloved, Gwendolen (Frances O'Connor), declares that she could only love a man named Ernest. Her cousin, Algy, is the one person who knows Jack's secret and one day he travels down to the estate, announcing himself to Jack's attractive ward, Cecily (Reese Witherspoon), as the infamous Ernest. Cecily is enamoured of him and his name, but upon Jack's return home and Gwendolen's unexpected arrival it becomes clear there are both too many and too few Ernests. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three out of four LESS