Movie review: 'Easy Virtue'
Easy Virtue
2.5 stars
Directed by Stephan Elliott
Starring Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth
By Mina Hochberg
“Easy Virtue,” adapted from the 1924 Noel Coward play, is a frothy comedy of clashes between an American female race car driver and the snobby British family that she marries into.
When a happy-go-lucky young Brit (Ben Barnes) brings his new wife, Larita (Jessica Biel), to the sprawling estate where his family lives, scandal rocks the countryside. Not only is this saucy wife a female practicing a man’s sport, she’s also American.
The uptight matriarch (Kristin Scott Thomas) treats her new daughter-in-law with unconcealed disdain, while the two sisters, at first fascinated, slowly find ways to hate their indiscreet in-law. The only kindred soul in Larita’s new family is the ball-and-chained father (Colin Firth), who seems as pained to live in the household as Larita is.
Biel is gorgeous — you literally can’t take your eyes off her luminous face. This distracts you from the impression that Biel, though striking, is too one-dimensional, making a gawky fit for the role of this 1920s tomboy. The rest of the cast dovetails quite nicely. Thomas is perfectly suited to play a chilly mother-in-law, and Barnes is refreshingly young, a very credible naif.
“Easy Virtue” has all the cosmetic touches of an entertaining cheeky farce, but the performances are too uneven to pull off that quintessential Cowardian comedic timing.
