Easy Virtue

Easy Virtue is a very liberal adaptation of Noel Coward's play. Director Stephan Elliot (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) has tried to make the film more contemporary and very distinct from the Merchant-Ivory school of film.

The story is set in the roaring twenties where John (Ben Barnes) from an aristocratic English family marries Larita (Jessica Biel), an American race driver, after a whirlwind romance in France. However his mother Veronica (Kristin Scott Thomas) is none too pleased while John's father Jim (colin Firth) finds a soul mate in Larita. These relationships, including those with John's sisters, make for a very intriguing and entertaining hour and a half, The acting, as could be expected from such a cast is uniformly excellent with perhaps Jessica Biel standing out a little more.

One of Stephan Elliot's nice touches is an anachronistic use of such songs as Car Wash and Sex Bomb, done in a very twenties style. The addition of a hilarious "dog scene" is another nice touch. Fans of Noel Coward (and even Merchant-Ivory) won't be disappointed.

I wasn't aware that 'Easy Virtue' was based on a Noel Coward play and while the cast included great actors like Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas I was a bit skeptical when the credits spelled out Jessica Biel. Anyway, when I got the opportunity and finally sat down to give this a chance and it's actually not a bad movie.

Although the film is set in the 20s, it's quite a modern adaptation. The art direction is pleasing to look at. The sets are lovely. I only thought that the costumes were a bit out of place, especially those worn by the Whitakers. Granted that this isn't supposed to look like a Merchant Ivory production but if it weren't for their properties, I wouldn't have had any idea that they're a wealthy family. Even their maids and butler are better dressed. There are certain historical accuracies that are apparent.

But what's delightful about 'Easy Virtue' is the acting. However some of the characters are very poorly written. For example the Whitaker sisters are caricature and even the Mrs. Whitaker character is a cliché but Kristin Scott Thomas manages to rise above it. Colin Firth is excellently restrained as the quiet and traumatized father. The real surprise is Jessica Biel. Where acting is concerned, this may be her best performance to date and she definitely holds her own. My only quibble, which doesn't have anything to do with her acting, is that her character, who apparently is supposed to be older than Panda, doesn't look older than John.

Overall, it's a decent one-time watch flick. The best parts are Biel's sequences with Scott Thomas and Firth.

Brilliant, sparkling, joyful and sad, passionate and exciting, sweet and sour, elegant, refined and superbly ungraceful at the same time: contrasting adjectives are very fit for this captivating movie, which really hits the mark in a superb way. No flaw is to be found: the construction is solid and yet dynamic, highly-range acting is offered by the whole cast (but let me define Kristin Scott Thomas as sublime). The director creates a really enjoyable product, capable as it is of gaining the favour of the audience and to satisfy the viewer, both from an aesthetic and emotional point of view. The sound and authentic British humour stirring from the beginning to the end, makes one laugh but also think about the necessity to overcome a stuffy traditionalist attitude which make look back to a fossilized but no longer valid past,in order to let the new enter the scene, with all its dramatic potential of change. All certainties are questioned and prove to be dramatically frail. The conflict between the traditional English sobriety and self-control and the non-conformist American way of life gives rise to funny but also thoughtful moments of tension, subtly underlined by witty dialogues and emotionally engaging musical and dancing exchanges. A movie to be seen, heard, and enjoyed in every single part.

Jessica Biel who is still probably best known for being the virtuous good girl preacher's kid Mary Camden from 7th Heaven gets to tackle a classic Noel Coward role in one of his early plays Easy Virtue. She's the American interloper in an English aristocratic family and she's unsettling to family matriarch Kristin Scott-Thomas.

Noel Coward who wrote about these upper classes and twitted their pretensions with such wit that they kept coming back for more and kind of adopted him in a way they never adopted Oscar Wilde or George Bernard Shaw, was a kid who grew up in poverty and made his way out through his many talents to entertain. Those in the upper classes who took Coward to their hearts felt themselves to be modern, progressive, and generally with it in terms of social trends. The Whittakers in Easy Virtue are some other kind of aristocrats, not anybody like that hangs out at the parties we invite Noel to entertain at.

What Amelia Earhart is to aviation, Jessica Biel's character is to auto racing. She's a young widow from the Detroit area and of course being from that area has an interest in motor cars and auto racing. She's fresh from winning at Monte Carlo and she's also won young Ben Barnes the heir to the Whittaker name and estates. Which might not be all that much, there's a name and a lot of land and debts.

When Barnes brings Biel home to the family they are mortified by her classless American ways in the sense of not recognizing class distinctions. It was one of those things we got rid of after 1776, no titles of nobility. We had our aristocrats, but that's a whole other story.

Scott-Thomas dominates the family, trying desperately to keep the estate together. Her husband Colin Firth served in World War I and the horror of it did something to him. It probably not only has to do with the horror of that trench war slaughter, but the fact that class distinctions tend to melt in combat. He and Biel kind of like each other, but it's his wife who rules the Whittaker roost now.

A scandal from the past threatens to disrupt the Barnes/Biel marriage and that forms the crux on which the story turns. In fact at the end its really up to the viewer to figure out what will eventually happen with the two of them.

This is the second film adaption of Easy Virtue, the first was a silent film from 1928 and was directed by a young Alfred Hitchcock. Easy Virtue was actually premiered in America before London in 1924 and starred the great American stage actress Jane Cowl. I guess Coward figured with an American heroine it was best to get it before the American theatergoers before the British ones.

This version of Easy Virtue is directed flawlessly by Stephen Elliot who made a fine use of period music by Noel Coward, Cole Porter and others and in the end over the credits really mocked the upper classes in the Coward tradition by playing When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going. I believe Elliott was trying to say those classes, especially the ones we see here might not have the right stuff any more.

And of course there's the obligatory fox hunt which the upper classes indulged in, still do. As Oscar Wilde said, "the unspeakable after the uneatable."

Any chance for the younger generation to be exposed to Noel Coward is worth seeing.

EASY VIRTUE is a clear example of the fact that making an outstanding film just isn't all that EASY!

When was the last time a Noel Coward play was made into a movie, anyway? I could've looked it up, but I'll leave it to you, if you really think it's all that important!

I'll wager the Producers, Director & Screenwriter didn't see most of the screen adaptations of his plays done in the 30's/40's on TV when they were kids, as I did.

Honestly... Seemed they were a bit out of their element...at times. The end result: It's EASY to see the film was being pulled in several different directions, which was most apparent early on.

In fact, EASY can be divided into 3 segments of roughly 30 minutes each. Segment #1 really didn't seem to know where it was going. It suffered from poor pacing and a pervasive tension on the set that permeated several of the scenes.

What really had me close to quitting on EASY were the very awkwardly inserted bits of slapstick, obviously an attempt at comic relief, but which seemed utterly contrived and out of synch with most every other aspect of the film!

Segment #2 was a definite improvement. Toned down considerably were the scenes involving slapstick. Only a few brief moments, which were much better integrated into the overall work.

The culture-clash, the true razon d'être of EASY, between Jessica Biel's character, Larita, an independent & free-spirited American race-car driver of sorts, and the lady of the manor, Mrs. Whittaker (Kristin Scott Thomas/The English Patient), who turns out to be one lady with an extremely controlling and manipulative manner, is handled much more smoothly in the second segment, and, as a consequence, these scenes are much more amusing, even occasionally funny!

The closing segment really had me in its grip. The ensemble cast really shone. Finally, we see evidence of why so many of Noel Coward's plays were made into movies. All the outstanding elements; costumes, sets and music among others, really contributed to a very fulfilling final ½ hour! Colin Firth deserves a mention, perhaps, for EASY's best performance. Had the entire film been at segment three's level, 8*--EASY! However, I feel 6* is a fair overall rating.