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IMDbPro

Easy Virtue

  • 20082008
  • PG-13PG-13
  • 1h 37m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
22K
YOUR RATING
Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jessica Biel, and Ben Barnes in Easy Virtue (2008)
A young Englishman (Barnes) brings his glamorous American bride (Biel) home to meet his family, and she arrives like a blast from the future, blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.
Play trailer2:02
1 Video
61 Photos
ComedyRomance
A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the w... Read allA young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
22K
YOUR RATING
    • Stephan Elliott
    • Stephan Elliott
    • Sheridan Jobbins
    • Noël Coward(play)
  • Stars
    • Jessica Biel
    • Ben Barnes
    • Kristin Scott Thomas
    • Stephan Elliott
    • Stephan Elliott
    • Sheridan Jobbins
    • Noël Coward(play)
  • Stars
    • Jessica Biel
    • Ben Barnes
    • Kristin Scott Thomas
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 90User reviews
    • 129Critic reviews
    • 58Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos1

    Easy Virtue
    Trailer 2:02
    Watch Easy Virtue

    Photos61

    Easy Virtue (2008)
    Jessica Biel and Stephan Elliott in Easy Virtue (2008)
    Jessica Biel and Christian Brassington in Easy Virtue (2008)
    Jessica Biel and Christian Brassington in Easy Virtue (2008)
    Jessica Biel in Easy Virtue (2008)
    Easy Virtue (2008)
    Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes in Easy Virtue (2008)
    Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes in Easy Virtue (2008)
    Ben Barnes in Easy Virtue (2008)
    Kimberley Nixon in Easy Virtue (2008)
    Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes in Easy Virtue (2008)
    Kristin Scott Thomas in Easy Virtue (2008)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Jessica Biel
    Jessica Biel
    • Larita Whittaker
    Ben Barnes
    Ben Barnes
    • John Whittaker
    Kristin Scott Thomas
    Kristin Scott Thomas
    • Veronica Whittaker
    Colin Firth
    Colin Firth
    • Mr. Whittaker
    Kimberley Nixon
    Kimberley Nixon
    • Hilda Whittaker
    Katherine Parkinson
    Katherine Parkinson
    • Marion Whittaker
    Kris Marshall
    Kris Marshall
    • Furber
    Christian Brassington
    Christian Brassington
    • Phillip Hurst
    Charlotte Riley
    Charlotte Riley
    • Sarah Hurst
    Jim McManus
    • Jackson
    Pip Torrens
    Pip Torrens
    • Lord Hurst
    Jeremy Hooton
    • Davis
    Joanna Bacon
    Joanna Bacon
    • Cook…
    Maggie Hickey
    • Millie the Maid
    Georgie Glen
    Georgie Glen
    • Mrs. Landrigin
    David Longstaff
    • Reverend Burton
    Mike Archer
    Mike Archer
    • Warwick Holborough
    • (as Michael Archer)
    Rebel Penfold-Russell
    • Mrs. Winston
      • Stephan Elliott
      • Stephan Elliott
      • Sheridan Jobbins
      • Noël Coward(play)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In the vintage Monte Carlo scene which opens the movie, when Larita first sees John, both her and John's movements are slowed down while the rest of the cast play at "normal" (i.e. newsreel) speed. This was accomplished by filming the crowd, Larita, John, the background, and the foreground mechanics separately against greenscreen and compositing them together at different speeds.
    • Goofs
      Both Larita and Marion are seen reading D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover". This book had was published in English in Italy in 1928 and France in 1929, and was not printed in Britain until 1960. But Larita could have bought it in Italy during her 1928 racing tour of Europe.
    • Quotes

      Mrs. Whittaker: Smile, Marion.

      Marion Whittaker: I don't feel like smiling.

      Mr. Whittaker: You're English dear, fake it.

    • Crazy credits
      The band playing the closing music calls out its members' names.
    • Connections
      Featured in Breakfast: Episode dated 7 December 2009 (2009)
    • Soundtracks
      Mad About the Boy
      Written by Noël Coward

      Published by Chappell Music Ltd. (PRS)

      All rights administered by Chappell & Co. Inc.

      Licensed courtesy of Warner Chappell Music Ltd.

      Performed by Jessica Biel with The Easy Virtue Orchestra

    User reviews90

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    Mad Englishmen And Foxes
    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.
    helpful•36
    4
    • bkoganbing
    • Apr 30, 2010

    FAQ2

    • Is "Easy Virtue" based on a book?
    • Is this a period movie?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • June 19, 2009 (United States)
      • United Kingdom
      • Canada
      • Official site
      • English
      • French
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Flintham Hall, Flintham, Newark, Nottinghamshire, England, UK
    • Production companies
      • Ealing Studios
      • Fragile Films
      • Endgame Entertainment
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 37 minutes
      • Color
      • Black and White
      • Dolby Digital

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