Easy Virtue (2008 film)

Easy Virtue
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Stephan Elliott
Written by	Stephan Elliott Sheridan Jobbins Noël Coward (play)
Produced by	Barnaby Thompson Joseph Abrams James D. Stern
Starring	Jessica Biel Colin Firth Kristin Scott Thomas Ben Barnes
Cinematography	Martin Kenzie
Edited by	Sue Blainey
Distributed by	Ealing Studios Pathe
Release dates	November 7, 2008 (Ireland) May 22, 2009 (USA)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$14 million
Box office	$12,474,632

Easy Virtue is a social comedy based on Noël Coward's play of the same name. The play was previously made into the silent movie Easy Virtue (1928) by Alfred Hitchcock. This version is directed by Stephan Elliott, written by Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins, and stars Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas. Easy Virtue is a social comedy in which a glamorous American widow, Larita, impetuously marries a young Englishman, John Whittaker, in the South of France. When they return to England to meet his parents, his mother takes a strong dislike to their new daughter-in-law, while his father, Jim, finds a kindred spirit. Family tensions escalate. The score contains many Coward and jazz-age songs, some of which are sung, or partially sung by the cast.

The film was screened at the Toronto Film Festival and London Film Festival prior to its 7 November release by Pathé in the UK. Subsequently, the film was also screened at the Rio International Film Festival, Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi, and the Rome Film Festival. It closed the Adelaide Film Festival prior to the Australian theatrical release on March 12, 2009. In May 2009 it was released in theatres in the U.S.

In the United States of America, the film enjoyed some commercial success. Sony Pictures Classics paid around $1 million to acquire the film's distribution rights in the United States, Latin America and South Africa; the film went on to gross $2.5 million in limited theatrical release in the United States.

Plot

Larita, a glamorous American widow and successful racecar driver (Jessica Biel), meets young John Whittaker (Ben Barnes) in Monaco. They marry, and he takes his bride home to meet his family at their dauntingly large rural mansion, where seven generations of Whittakers have been gentleman farmers. There she meets her icy cold mother-in-law, Veronica (Kristin Scott Thomas) and disheveled, sad-eyed father-in-law, Colonel Jim Whittaker (Colin Firth).

Veronica, already predisposed to dislike her new daughter-in-law ("John's floozy") is further disappointed to find that she is a brash American who, like the Colonel, speaks fluent French. Larita also meets John's former girlfriend and neighbour Sarah Hurst (Charlotte Riley), who is gracious about the marriage. Larita remains calm in the face of her new mother-in-law's disdain, even being so bold as to reveal having been previously married. Veronica feels that John will soon tire of his wife and that the marriage will end in divorce. She works on making Larita unhappy, while making John content to stay.

Time passes, and to Larita's disappointment, John is not eager to leave the estate so that they can find a home of their own. Larita is bored and miserable in the countryside and hates blood sports like hunting. She reads Sodom and Gomorrah, by Marcel Proust, which shocks her husband's female relatives, and she doesn't want to play tennis. She also dislikes Veronica's stuffy decor, her constant entertaining of her stuffy friends and the overcooked food. Worse still, she suffers from hay fever. She tries to get along with her mother-in-law, but Veronica refuses to accept her and resents her attempts to bring some fresh air into the situation.

Larita makes some inadvertent gaffes, accidentally killing the family chihuahua and giving some joking advice to the younger daughter, Hilda (Kimberley Nixon), that unfortunately results in embarrassment to, and enmity from, the daughters. Sarah comes to the Whittakers' parties, and to play tennis, accompanied by her brother Philip (Christian Brassington), on whom Hilda has a crush. Philip, however, is infatuated with Larita, which further angers Hilda. To Veronica's horror, she and her hunting party discover John and Larita making love in an outbuilding. Larita finds herself increasingly isolated and demoralized by her mother-in-law's derision, verbal attacks and dirty tricks. Larita's only sympathetic friends are the Colonel and the servants, whom she treats better than does Veronica. Larita retreats to the Colonel's workshop to help him work on his motorcycle. Still reeling from losing all his men in the war, the Colonel has lost interest in his home, and there is no love between him and his wife.

The Whittaker estate has fallen on hard times. Larita's handsome and charming young husband, once in the shadow of his dragon-lady mother, loses his independence and seems immature to her as he is drawn into family life. In addition, John's affection for Larita seems to be waning, as complains about his wife to Sarah, who finds his overture inappropriate. When John learns how bad the financial situation is for the family, his sense of responsibility to his family brings him closer to his mother and drives a wedge between him and his wife, as his mother had hoped.

Finally, Hilda obtains a newspaper cutting revealing scandalous secrets about Larita's first marriage to a much older man who was dying of cancer: she had helped him die using poison. John withdraws from Larita, while the Colonel scolds his daughters for their cruelty. At Veronica's next big party, John refuses to dance with Larita, so the Colonel dances a tango with her. She determines to leave the marriage, and on her way out of the mansion, she apologizes to Sarah for having interrupted her relationship with John. She hopes that Sarah will take John back. Veronica shows up, and an argument ensues in which Veronica and Larita trade barbs. Larita finally leaves, but the Colonel goes with her. Furber (Kris Marshall), the family butler, wishes them well.

Writing

Coward's play was adapted to the screen by Stephan Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins and follows the progress of the original play quite closely.

In his autobiography, Present Indicative published in 1937, Coward describes his object in the play as being "to compare the declasse woman of to-day with the more flamboyant demi-mondaine of the 1890's." He goes on to say, "The line that was intended to establish the play on a basis of comedy rather than tragedy, comes at the end of the second act when Larita, the heroine, irritated beyond endurance by the smug attitude of her 'in-laws', argues them out of the room."

Although the play was made into a silent film in 1928 directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Isabel Jeans and Franklin Dyall, this film is not mentioned in Coward's autobiography. The 2008 version of the film, is, however, favourably reviewed by the Noël Coward Society (see below).

Directing

Filmmaker Stephan Elliott instructed Kristin Scott Thomas to play Mrs. Whittaker as a "mustache-twirling... Disney witch." Initially, the actress responded by suggesting this is the worst direction she had ever received, but later embraced her character's wickedness and somewhat haggard appearance and unflattering wardrobe.

Cast

• Jessica Biel as Larita Whittaker, a glamorous American widow and racecar driver
• Ben Barnes as John Whittaker
• Colin Firth as Colonel Jim Whittaker
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs. Veronica Whittaker
• Kimberley Nixon as Hilda Whittaker
• Katherine Parkinson as Marion Whittaker
• Kris Marshall as Furber the butler
• Christian Brassington as Philip Hurst
• Charlotte Riley as Sarah Hurst
• Jim McManus as Jackson
• Pip Torrens as Lord Hurst
• Georgia Glen as Mrs. Langridon

Soundtrack

The score for the film was produced by Marius de Vries and the film's director Stephan Elliott. It features several songs by Cole Porter. It is performed by The Easy Virtue Orchestra - which was assembled specifically for the film. Jessica Biel makes her musical debut singing two tracks which are featured on the soundtrack album. Ben Barnes sings several songs on the sound track, including "Room With a View", while Colin Firth makes a guest appearance on the closing track.

An album of the soundtrack was released on November 3, 2008 in stores and on iTunes.

Featured in the closing credits is a cover version, in 1920's faux-jazz style, of "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" (c. 1986), performed by Colin Firth, Ben Barnes, Jessica Biel, and Andy Caine. The song was written by Billy Ocean, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Wayne Brathwaite, and Barry Eastmond.

Critical reception

Colm Andrew of the Manx Independent gave the film 7/10 and said it was "a frothy affair but the source material is good - the script is workmanlike but at least it doesn't try to be clever and the quality of the acting makes sure the lines resonate soundly". Some critics felt that the movie’s insistent jazz-age lilt is ultimately at odds with a play written in 1924 that attacks the hypocrisy, smugness and benighted values of the English landed gentry between the wars. The screenplay includes scattered Coward bons mots, but the witticisms don’t come as thick or as fast as in his later plays.

Broadsheet and national British reviews were generally mixed or negative. Film Four's praised the casting of Biel and noted that, though Firth's and Thomas's casting was "hardly radical thinking, both offer something different from their previous period work". However, Philip French of the Observer wrote that the film was "well enough designed and photographed, but witless, anachronistic, cloth-eared, lacking in both style and period sense", while Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian attacked its script for "undermin[ing] the material by slipping arch modern phrases and gags into everyone's mouths". The critic of the Times awarded it only one star out of five, whilst Nicholas Barber of the Independent wrote that "every one of Elliott's straining efforts to turn Easy Virtue into a zany, risqué farce only makes it seems stuffier and starchier".

References

• [3] Interview with Stephan Elliott & Sheridan Jobbins

External links

• Easy Virtue at IMDb
• Official Website with Easy Virtue soundtrack samples