PICKS & PANS

This week's reviews: 'Earnest,' Breeders album, 'The Hamptons'

(PEOPLE) -- This week, PEOPLE.COM looks at film "The Importance of Being Earnest," The Breeders' new album "Title TK" and ABC's "The Hamptons."

Go to: Movies | Music | TV

Movie review: 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

Despite Rupert Everett and Judi Dench, "Earnest" neglects the importance of Wilde's own wit.

Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedy unfolds in a world in which the oxygen has been pumped out and a lighter, dizzying element pumped in. The plot -- something to do with two Victorian playboys, a terrifying pillar of society named Lady Bracknell and a baby in a handbag -- is close to Dada, and the dialogue pings back and forth in a volley of arch, nonsensical epigrams. ("All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.") It's brittle fluff. Not something Oliver Stone would want to get his mitts on.

Instead Earnest has been adapted and directed by another Oliver, surname Parker, who does plenty of rough damage on his own. Parker jollies things up, doling out the play's action into a number of randy period settings, including a gambling club -- and a tattoo parlor! Even with a cast as sharp as Rupert Everett as ne'er-do-well Algernon Moncrieff, Reese Witherspoon as moony young Cecily Cardew and Judi Dench as Lady Bracknell, the performances blur in the hurly-burly. (PG)

Bottom line: Misguided walk on the Wilde side

Music review: 'Title TK'

The Breeders (Elektra)

MORE STORIES PEOPLE COVER STORY: Hollywood healthy bodies  More from PEOPLE.COM    RESOURCES PEOPLE.COM PROFILE: Get to know Reese Witherspoon    E-MAIL Want more from PEOPLE.COM? Sign up  for free e-mails

Grunge may be dead, but somebody forgot to tell the Breeders. The quintet, led by identical twin sisters Kim and Kelley Deal, rock like it's 1993 on their first studio album since, well, 1993. (In the interim, Kim formed a new band, the Amps, while Kelley battled a drug problem.)

The raw, unpolished music on the new disc sounds as if it was simply played, not produced. The Breeders come by their rude rock honestly: They didn't use any computers or digital technology when making "Title TK" (publishing jargon for "title to come"); this is an analog-only recording.

Their sometimes jarring approach may not be for sensitive ears -- the extended bit of feedback on one song will have you checking your stereo system -- but fast and furious tracks like "Full on Idle" and "Huffer" pack a refreshing rush.

Bottom line: Unrefined breeding

TV review: 'The Hamptons'

ABC (Sunday-Monday, June 2-3, 9 p.m. ET)

You have to settle into a place before really getting to know it. Besides, a fast pace ill befits a film about a summer resort. But the likelihood remains that this four-hour documentary about Long Island's East End in 2001 will tire those with no special interest in the habits of rich New Yorkers.

Though producer-director Barbara Kopple ("American Dream") captures moments that are revelatory, amusing and even poignant, "The Hamptons" has too many characters, no narrative through-line and a meandering style that tends to cause mental drift.

The year-rounders (fishermen, cops) are seen as far more genuine than the summering Manhattanites. A flirty lawyer hunting a husband and a party-happy young entrepreneur fairly flaunt their shallowness. Kopple gets quality time with a few luminaries -- Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel seem to have a very civilized divorce -- but most of the celebrity sightings are brief. And the film is a day late and a dollar short in treating the notorious assault-by-SUV charges against publicist Lizzie Grubman.

Bottom line: Too long by half