Its point and Wilde's intent was to make fun of Victorian notions of romance and marrying well and to expose the mercantile nature of that society. It is more precisely a satire of a romantic comedy. This attempt turn it into a light entertainment for today's youthful audiences fails because this play is not a romantic comedy. Not an easy trick, but that is why The Importance of Being Earnest is considered one of the greatest plays ever written. This is the genius of the play: the play-goer might view all of the values of bourgeois society upheld while at the same time they are being made fun of. The point of Wilde's play was to simultaneously delight and satirize the Victorian audience who came to watch the play. Compared to Dane Edith Evans's brilliant performance in the celebrated cinematic production from 1952, Dench's Lady Bracknell is positively one-dimensional. Instead Judi Dench's Lady Bracknell (and I don't blame Dench who is a fine actress) is harsh and stern and literal to the point of being a controlling matriarch when what Wilde had in mind was somebody who was both pompous and almost idiotic yet capable of a penetrating and cynical wisdom (so like the author's). She is supposed to steal every scene she is in and we are to double take everyone of her speeches as we feel that she is simultaneous absurd and exactly right.
He focused on the "dashing young bachelors" when the real focus of the play is Lady Bracknell, the absurd and beautifully ironic representation of the Victorian mind who was then and has been for over a hundred years Wilde's singular creation and one of the great characters of English literature. Oliver Parker, who directed and wrote the screen adaptation, simply misinterpreted the play. Indeed I think I feel the ground rumbling as he rolls over in his grave, and yes he is actually spinning in anguish. This is an inventive and artful production of Oscar Wilde's play, but I can confidently say that were Oscar Wilde alive today, he would be appalled at the misuse to which his play has been put.
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