Easy Virtue ~~~

12th November 2008

Very briefly, this was a rather successful, post WW1, mixed up aristo family in a big, old country house trying to get through life, poor us, Noel Coward based rom-com with a twist flick.

Excellent cast included Colin Firth (the Dad), Kristin Scott Thomas (the Mum) and a ravishing Jessica Biel (the Easy Virtue?) The story is very simple; boy meets girl, they fall in love, get married, go back to see his family in their country pile and all hell breaks loose. Unfortunately for Biel's character, the family, specifically the mother and daughters', don't take very kindly to an older, beautiful, divorced American bride setting foot in the ancestral home presumably to drink their heir-to-be, dry of his inheritance. It's bitch, bitch here and bitch, bitch there. Part-farce, part-British drama it's certainly a film with it's fingers in many pies.

I'm not sure whether it was Coward's or the film makers' intention to create a real mish-mash of a story or whether it just all gets a little bit mixed up as it goes along. It jumps from the innocent murder of mother's annoying rat-dog by Biel (too much of a set up and pretty embarrassing), to set-piece dance routines to incredibly touching scenes about the father who returned from war a broken man - I just had too many emotions fighting to get out all at once and that was pretty unsatisfactory really.

Everyone was very good in their parts, the casting was spot on. The lead actor, Ben Barnes has a marvellous singing voice whilst Biel was magnif on the dance floor. It must be said, I'd never seen Miss Biel on screen before (just in trashy magazines) but was very impressed. Gorgeous but human. Good start. Scott Thomas played the irrational, fraught but sympathetic mother losing her estate and family spot on. Mr Firth was great. His role here reminded me of the wonderful part he played in 'A Month in the Country'; war-ravaged and broken.

What I do have to complain about was the score. It might have sounded like a good idea at the time, but with such a well dressed set, why confuse the audience with a jazzy, mock-20's rendition of 'Car Wash'? It wasn't even relevant to the scene at the time.... The band making the music was great but the aged renditions of modern tunes just, excuse me, sucked. If they release it on DVD, any chance I could have the option of another soundtrack? Far too distracting to make a positive contribution to an otherwise entertaining and well realised period comedy. Overall though, I'm still glad the BBC is making flicks.