If you have the opportunity to see a production of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," you should take advantage
of it. Even reading the play is enjoyable, so full of witticisms and quotable dialogue is it. If you have the opportunity to see the movie -- well, don't avoid it, but don't knock anyone down to get to the theater, either. It has neither the wit nor the timing of the play, though much of the charm has remained intact. This comedy of manners mocks the frivolity of British high society at the turn of the last century. In it, a country gentleman named Jack (Colin Firth) has invented a fictitious brother named Ernest whom he often must go to London to bail out of trouble; in London, he IS Ernest, and he can do anything he pleases, since all his misdeeds will be blamed on someone who doesn't exist.
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