Easy Virtue Review

Taken from Noel Coward's delightful play about the roaring '20s and stuffy Englishmen, Easy Virtue manages to retain the wit and charm of the great playwright, while giving the film a modern appeal.

With a plethora of top talent on show, the story focuses on a well to do family living in a palatial country pad. But, as with all Coward plays, scratch a little below the surface and things are definitely not all they seem. The eldest child, something of devil-may-care chap, returns home to his unsuspecting parents with his new girlfriend.

The parents are shocked to discover that the pair have already got married, but worse is to come when the beautiful bride, who is also a glamorous racing driving, opens her mouth - for she is an American. Shock horror.

And, much to the boy's bewilderment, his family are not so enchanted with the blonde bombshell, most notably his mother. And, to add to matters, it turns out that all is not well with the family home. Financial concerns, the need to keep up appearances, and the war-ravaged father's opium and brothel odyssey post WWI, have all helped to create a somewhat unique atmosphere at home.

The delightful Jessica Biel (The Illusionist, I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry) is in fine form as the brassy American, and her relationship - if you can call it that - with her mother-in-law is the real essence of the film. Kristin Scott Thomas ((I've Loved You So Long) is perfectly cast as the acerbic Mrs Whittaker, with a tongue so cutting it could open its own hairdressers. Scott Thomas is also ably assisted by Mr D'arcy himself, Colin Firth, who stars as her world-weary husband. Kris Marshall (those BT ads, Love Actually) and Ben Barnes (Stardust, Prince Caspian) also provide fine support.

A lavish production with beautiful clothes, fabulous locations and sterling (British mostly!) performances, Easy Virtue is as sparky as an electrician on amphetamines.

Easy Virtue Review

Stephan Elliott is the first to admit that the runaway success of cross-dressing comedy "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" back in 1994 cast an inescapable shadow over his subsequent work. He is also frank about how the experience of "Eye of the Beholder" left him utterly disaffected and out of love with filmmaking. On the surface, adapting Noel Coward's "Easy Virtue" may seem an unusual way for the outspoken Aussie to mark his return, but it's time to throw the form guide and rulebook away and leave your preconceptions at home. Aided by a revelatory turn by Jessica Biel, Elliott has announced his triumphant return with a film brimming with more confidence than its brassy leading lady.

Biel plays Larita, a glamorous and worldly American race car driver who is brought back to meet the Whittaker family after a whirlwind romance with eldest son John (Barnes). A frosty reception from Scott Thomas' icy matriarch Mrs Whittaker, soon descends into a game of tug of war between wife and mother. Colin Firth plays her beleaguered husband, a man wracked with guilt following the end of the First World War and whose cynicism makes him the sole ally of Larita. Needless to say, an empowered woman such as Larita swiftly sets about upsetting the conventions of 1920s high society.

"Easy Virtue" is a real pleasant surprise and despite it's setting, a thoroughly modern piece of work. Elliott's decision to dispense with the sombre tone of Coward's play and simply have fun is an inspired one and he seems to take great pleasure in subverting our expectations of a period drama. Biel is fantastic in the central role, oozing glamour and charisma, as well as comfortably holding her own amongst a cast of heavyweight British thesps. The witty exchanges in the dialogue have a wonderful fast-paced cadence to them and moments of farce are also carried off with aplomb. Most impressive is Elliott's Luhrmann-esque merging of modern music with a period setting, further highlighting his ability to take bold decisions that really shouldn't work but turning them into the film's key strengths.

Occasional nods to the darkness of Coward's original, but for the most part "Easy Virtue" is good old-fashioned entertainment.