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The Importance of Being Earnest Review Screenwriters and Film directors often have to make some changes to a literary work in their film adaptations, just as is the case with Oliver Parker in directing ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ by Oscar Wilde. These changes could have been adopted by the intention to have the dialogue trimmed, adapting the setting to a modern audience, or even distinguishing the production from previous adaptations of the same work. Parker remains faithful to the original script mostly, but the changes incorporated arose from the necessity to have the film achieve reasonable length. He does this by taking some of the scenes and having them spread over multiple locations, such as when Algernon and Jack interact at Jack's home instead of a nightclub initially. Most of the dialogues, however, remain intact though the setting of the film changes and some scenes shortened such as when Lady Bracknell asked Jack to pass by her place the following day (Hunt N.p). It is highly likely that Parker thought that such an interrogative scene would rather happen there to make more meaningful sense than at Algernon's home. Many characters (and their traits) in the film adaptation reflect those in the original script by Wilde except a few. While Jack is 35 years old in the film, Wilde's text depicts him as 29, probably because the age selected was closer to the role's actor, Colin Firth. The players are featured entirely in their roles, like Firth acting all "charming but quirky" (Hunt N.p). Algernon character too is played out well, though it would have been discerning for Grant to act it out so that their affair from their previous films could be reprised.
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