Comparing The Importance Of Being Earnest To The Movie

When making a film adaptation a director is forced to make several difficult decisions. How faithful will their movie be to the original literary work? Even if a director stays faithful to the original source material, they often add some concepts of their own in order to satisfy their creative urges. For the most part, when adapting the play The Importance of Being Earnest, director Rob Parker stayed pretty faithful to the original source material. However, he did make a very slight amount of changes when making his film. Through his decision making Parker was able to create a film the was unique but still highly based on the play that he was adapting. In The Importance of Being Earnest film Parker stayed faithful to the dialogue, made slight …show more content…
The Acts in the play are mostly in one set location, whereas in the film the setting changes more often. Plays are limited to the confines of the stage and are less effective at demonstrating the full scope of a setting. Unlike the play which started and stayed in Algernon’s home, the beginning of the film demonstrates to the reader the scope of the city. It begins with Algernon being pursued through the streets at night, then the next evening he converses with Jack at a nightclub and their conversation extended to them walking the streets of the city at night. It begins with Algernon being pursued through the streets at night, then the next evening he converses with Jack at a nightclub and their conversation extended to them walking the streets of the city at night. Rather than having Lady Bracknell interrogate Jack at Algernon’s home, she invites him to go to her home for the questioning. In the film, when telling him that she would be willing to make him a possible candidate for Gwendolen’s hand in marriage she says, “Perhaps you would attend a meeting at my house at 11 o’clock tomorrow morning” (Parker, The Importance of Being Earnest). This makes the interrogation seem more serious and professional. Also, for people of power like Lady Bracknell, it is important for them to be in control at all times, this includes choosing the setting of any and all encounters if …show more content…
The beginning of the film shows Algernon being pursued through the streets are night, which is very different from his introduction in the play. The play introduces his character through dialogue and conversation, whereas the film shows the viewer what kind of a person Algernon is, rather than telling them. Furthermore, the scene introduces the cigarette case when Algernon offers the women whose carriage he jumped into a cigarette. This makes Algernon’s confrontation to Jack about his cigarette case seem a little less out of nowhere. However, a film reviewer named Robert Koehler criticises the decision and says, “Some new business involving Algy being chased around London and the countryside by debtors and Savoy Hotel reps is meant to underline the rake’s non-progress, but it just gets in the way of what is arguably one of the English language’s most perfectly devised comedies” (Koehler). Jack’s character is introduced at his home in the country, rather than in the city while he is in his Earnest persona. This allows the viewer to see the contrast between Jack and his alter ego and does a much better job of introducing his character. It shows that Jack is a very stern and well-behaved individual. This makes the revelation that his misbehaving brother is actually his alter ego much more surprising and impactful since unlike in the play the film viewer is introduced to Jack first. Furthermore, he