Easy Virtue
Based on the Comedy by Noel Coward
American divorcée Larita (Jessica Biel) is a race-car driver. After impulsively tying the knot in Monte Carlo with young Englishman John Whittaker (Ben Barnes), she travels to England to meet her groom's privileged and batty family. Naturally, they hate her.
John's mother, Mrs. Whittaker (Scott Thomas), and his sisters Hilda and Marion do their best to sabotage the newlyweds and banish their brother's shocking new wife. Only in the family's patriarch, Mr. Whittaker (Colin Firth), does the young bride find acceptance, and the two develop a bond founded on their mutual appreciation for motorbikes and flouting social etiquette.
Member Reviews
Good Romp - jillmo
I enjoyed this. Using Coward's great writing and the perils of the upper class and the evils of "the American", the film can't go wrong. Great actors and a clever thankfully quick use of music. It's no musical and that's a good thing. Light, fluffy but thoroughly enjoyable with humour.Enjoyable - Mellymel
I really enjoyed this movie. With Noel Coward's words, you really can't go too far wrong, and the direction and acting kept up!
Jessica Biel is luminous as always, and she showed some previously hidden talents, including singing and dancing abilities. Impressive!
The upstairs/downstairs storytelling of the Brits has been done, but the movie still managed to make it all fun and surprising even.
Kristin Scott Thomas steals the show as a proper uptight controlling matriarch, and Colin Firth is once again adorably lovable as a washed-up cad who hasn't gotten over his time in the war.
The music, modern covers of 30s and 40s classics, is great. I have to buy the soundtrack!Ham with Lord Sandwich - Tallen1
Since this version of an old story just arrived in 2009 it must be reviewed as a recent film. As such it turns out to be much like all the earlier films about the British upper crust. Uniformly, they provide the opportunity for what were once called "Repertory Actors" to play "Interesting British Characters." This play/film is very much a Noel Coward product. Noel was a dreadful Ham himself and he wrote Dreadful Ham plays. Think of Margaret Rutherford in "Blithe Spirit" or Noel himself in "In Which We Serve."
As usual,the American Lady is too American and the British are much too self satisfied. Each is convinced that he or she is the reincarnation of Oscar Wilde.
One reviewer calls the Upper Crust "redundant" and they are in a way. On the other hand, they were not all of them objectionable and they are the ones who preserved the countryside, did keep it a green and pleasant land, and left behind some wonderful architecture.
In sum, the film is a rerun of so many others and although we know the outcome, as we do with a Punch and Judy Show, it is a harmless way to wile away an hour and a half.
Member Reviews
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Good Romp - jillmo
I enjoyed this. Using Coward's great writing and the perils of the upper class and the evils of "the American", the film can't go wrong. Great actors and a clever thankfully quick use of music. It's no musical and that's a good thing. Light, fluffy but thoroughly ...Enjoyable - Mellymel
I really enjoyed this movie. With Noel Coward's words, you really can't go too far wrong, and the direction and acting kept up!
Jessica Biel is luminous as always, and she showed some previously hidden talents, including singing and dancing abilities. ...Ham with Lord Sandwich - Tallen1
Since this version of an old story just arrived in 2009 it must be reviewed as a recent film. As such it turns out to be much like all the earlier films about the British upper crust. Uniformly, they provide the opportunity for what were once called "Repertory ...