Easy Virtue [2008]

Easy Virtue is one of those light comedy/romance/drama movies that you can simply watch. Based on a play, it has a certain atmosphere that makes you wanna make some tea and giggle like an older English couple watching this on television. The themes are well known and revolve around love and relationships with a twist that only past can bring. A definition of easygoing. This would be pretty bland without good characters, and luckily this movie has them. Australian director Stephan Elliott already had a decent experience making this blend of melodrama with a positive spin, so you will feel at home while watching Larita’s adventures with the Whittakers. Although his previous movies were quite edgy, especially considering the vibe of this one. For example, the movie he’s most known for is The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a timeless story of two transgender woman as they journey across the desert to do their unique show. I recommend you check it out, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce are those two very sexy ladies.

Jessica Biel plays the new girl in a Whittaker family. Classic story of a young rebel in a strict English family, who brings home, from America, a lively girl and she just does not fit in the surroundings. Mother is wonderfully played by Kristin Scott Thomas, and the father, fucked up by WW2, by Colin Firth. Movie tries to be cute with the confrontation between the mother and the new girl, with English humor, but it’s all kind of pale, it’s all there but something is still missing, or maybe I just expected too much. You see the trailer and expect that they keep up that during the movie but that’s not the case. Cast is pretty good at least from the English side, and Jessica Biel from the American side did her job pretty well. Considering that this play was written in 1924 and that this is actually the second adaptation, we did fairly well. So, if you’re missing your dose of rigidly structured British royalty pornography, this movie will do just fine. And for those who are not connoisseurs of such exotic sub-genres, there’s always that journey to the unknown. Enjoy.

Director: Stephan Elliott

Cast: Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth, Ben Barnes, Kimberley Nixon, Katherine Parkinson

Fun Stuff: Based on a Noël Coward’s play, this is not the first attempt to convert this play into a movie. First movie Easy Virtue was shot in 1928 by Alfred Hitchcock

Rating:

IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808244/