Easy Virtue

Director: Stephan Elliot
Cast: Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Ben Barnes and Kristen Soctt Thomas
DVD release: 30 July 2009
Rated: PG

Bright and breezy Noel Coward adaption

With so many mediocre US comedies aimed at the adolescent market hogging screens recently, it’s a great pleasure to review this intelligent, witty and yet poignant British comedy of manners based on the play by Noel Coward. Like the opening sentence of a novel, the beginning of a movie has to grab your attention. The first ingenious scenes of Easy Virtue do make you sit up and take notice.

Set in the roaring twenties young upper class Englishman John Whittaker (Ben Barnes) falls madly in love with spirited American divorcee Larita (Jessica Biel), a sexy impetuous racing car driver. They return from an instant marriage in France to the grand though crumbling Whittaker residence which almost eclipses Brideshead. John’s mother (Kristen Scott Thomas) is less than impressed with her new daughter in law. A throughly modern Millie, bubbly Lorita tries to fit in with the snooty family, but it’s hard going especially after she inadvertently sits on mother's pet Chihuahua despatching it to an early doggie heaven.

Other hurdles encompassed are an inglorious can can at a village concert, followed by a disrupted hunting party. It transpires the Whittaker’s have less money than title, while the indomitable Mrs. Whittaker does her best to keep the family fortunes afloat. On the downside she wants to drive a wedge between her son John and Lorita by revealing some colourful secrets of Lorita’s past. However Lorita finds an unexcepted champion in Mrs. Whittaker’s long suffering husband, a disgruntled war veteran (Colin Firth).

It’s a glorious romp with some razor sharp dialogue that’s bound to tickle the funny bone. Jessica Biel from The Illusionist is in fine form as the exuberant divorcee, happily trading barbed outbursts with the best of them. She also happens to look superb in her 20's outfits. As her adversary Kirsten Scott Thomas (The Other Boleyn Girl) does smouldering contempt especially well as she trades insults. An unkempt Colin Firth (Bridget Jones’ Diary) brings a touch of pathos to the down trodden Mr. Whittaker. John played by Ben Barnes (Stardust) provides the ideal romantic foil for Biel. The supercilious and bored butler an amusing cameo from Kris Marshall (Death at a Funeral). John’s sisters Hilda (Kimberly Nixon) and Marion (Katherine Parkinson) are happily drawn minor roles.

Co-writer and director Stephan Elliot from Priscilla Queen of the Desert is back in fine form, after an absence of ten years from the film making due to a skiing accident. He shows a delightfully fresh approach to a Noel Coward period piece and milks laughs from the barbed script and his delightful cast who perform impeccably. It starts as straight comedy lampooning the upper classes, yet we develop feeling for the characters each desperate in their own way.

You’ll see the irreverent Stephan Elliot touch in many scenes. The sat upon dog, the running gag with the old gardener, and underwear free can cans. You need a stiff upper lip to survive Elliot’s take on the aristocrats. Cinematography is of a high order compared to some of the muddy images from digital cameras in features today. This a crisp well composed work, with the hunt and many exterior locations beautifully conceived. There are some inventive shots including the face reflected on the billiard ball. Ingenious use of music by Marius De Vries gives a twenties feel to contemporary pops, mixed with perennial Cole Porter/Noel Coward numbers.

Elliot has succeeded in his cheeky upgrading of the Coward play without going into high camp like Priscilla. I’m sure many younger people not familiar with Noel Coward’s work will enjoy this sparkling night’s entertainment.

John Bale

Footnote: There was a version of Easy Virtue made in 1928 by none less than Alfred Hitchcock. Noel Coward’s scathing repartee may have been a casualty in this silent movie.

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