The acting is as fine as anyone could expect.
The immediate problem for anyone already acquainted with Oscar Wilde's original script, is that all of the changes made for this film version are not only unnecessary, but also quite damaging to what was in fact a perfectly self-contained and concise dialogue.
Several omissions leave key set-up lines wasted, and all the additions seem both floundering and inadequate.
Plot continuity takes a skip as Lady Bracknell appears, with no attempt at explanation, at Jack's house in the country.
The occasional meanderings into visual and musical fantasy are annoyingly distracting.
All round it's a `6 of 10' film and all of those points are due entirely to the quality of the actors.
If Oscar Wilde's script was left in tact it could have been worth 8 or 9.
The immediate problem for anyone already acquainted with Oscar Wilde's original script, is that all of the changes made for this film version are not only unnecessary, but also quite damaging to what was in fact a perfectly self-contained and concise dialogue.
Several omissions leave key set-up lines wasted, and all the additions seem both floundering and inadequate.
Plot continuity takes a skip as Lady Bracknell appears, with no attempt at explanation, at Jack's house in the country.
The occasional meanderings into visual and musical fantasy are annoyingly distracting.
All round it's a `6 of 10' film and all of those points are due entirely to the quality of the actors.
If Oscar Wilde's script was left in tact it could have been worth 8 or 9.