The Importance of Being Earnest

Starring Reese Witherspoon (LEGALLY BLONDE), Colin Firth (BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY), and Rupert Everett (MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING), here is the hilarious adventure of two dashing young bachelors and the outrageous deceptions they find themselves in over love! Whenever Worthing (Firth) wants to leave his dull country life behind, he makes visits to the city posing as his fictitious "brother" Ernest. There, he becomes smitten with the ravishing Gwendolen (Frances O'Connor, A.I.). But when Worthing is in town, his playboy pal Algy (Everett) is in the country and falling for Worthing's young and beautiful ward, Cecily (Witherspoon) -- while also impersonating Ernest! Pandemonium ensues when these two would-be Ernests find themselves face-to-face and in the predicament of explaining who they really are!

Splendidly adapted from the wittiest play in the English language, The Importance of Being Earnest stars Colin Firth as an English gentleman who pretends to be his own brother, named Ernest, so he can enjoy himself in the city without besmirching his reputation at his country estate. Unfortunately, he's just fallen in love with a young woman (Frances O'Connor) who insists that she can only marry a man named Ernest--and when Firth's best friend (Rupert Everett) goes to Firth's country estate pretending to be this same brother Ernest, he falls in love with Firth's ward (Reese Witherspoon), who similarly feels that Ernest is the perfect name for a husband... The absurdity of the plot is matched by the exquisite cleverness of the dialogue, and the performances--particularly Dame Judi Dench as Everett's fearsome aunt--are excellent. --Bret Fetzer