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Easy Virtue

EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Easy Virtue reviews
58
7.5 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 12 votes
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Comedy  |  Romance

Written by: Sheridan Jobbins
Stephan Elliott

Directed by: Stephan Elliott

Release Date:
Theatrical: May 22, 2009
DVD: September 15, 2009

Running Time: 93 minutes, Color

Origin: UK

Language(s): English | French

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, brief partial nudity, and smoking throughout

Starring Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth, Kimberley Nixon, Katherine Parkinson, Kris Marshall, and Christian Brassington

The twenties have roared... the thirties have yet to swing. John Whittaker, a young Englishman, falls madly in love with Larita, a sexy and glamorous American woman, and they marry impetuously. However when the couple returns to the family home, his mother Mrs. Whittaker has an instant allergic reaction to her new daughter‐in‐law. Larita tries her best to fit in but fails to tiptoe through the minefield laid by her mother‐in‐law. Larita quickly realizes Mrs. Whittaker’s game and sees that she must fight back if she’s not going to lose John. A battle of wits ensues and sparks soon fly. Mrs. Whittaker manipulates every situation to undermine her, while Larita remains frustratingly calm and engineers sassy counter attacks. Before long, Mrs. Whittaker’s manipulation starts to work on John and Larita feels their love is in danger of slipping away. In a grand finale, where the secrets from Larita’s past are revealed, she finally makes a break for freedom from the suffocating house...(Sony Classics)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Jessica Biel has great fun with the American adventuress, while Kristin Scott Thomas is truly scary as her nemesis and mother-in-law.

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80

Variety Todd McCarthy

An effervescent entertainment that marks a welcome return for "Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" director Stephan Elliott after a nine-year absence.

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80

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Quick! Noël Coward--sage or supercilious bitch? No matter where you stand, Stephan Elliott's deliciously cheeky screen adaptation of one of the satirist's lesser-known jabs at the British upper crust will charm your pants off.

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80

Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey

Elliott has created a wonderfully rich battle for propriety in Easy Virtue. The humor might sting, but the pain is worth the pleasure.

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80

The New York Times Stephen Holden

In its cold-eyed assessment of the English aristocracy Easy Virtue has none of the lurking Anglophilia found in Merchant-Ivory movies.

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75

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Director Stephan Elliott uncorks a rare vintage of laughs tinged with heartache.

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75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The dialogue has an edgy wit, although it has no ambitions to be falling-down funny. Here is the Odd Couple formula applied in a specific time and place that make them feel very odd indeed.

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75

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's a pleasure to watch such top-notch actors deliver Coward's sparkling wit.

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75

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Sure, there's a plot, but it's a secondary element to the lines the actors deliver. Only Oscar Wilde has the same bite. Fortunately, Elliott understands this, which makes Easy Virtue go down smoothly.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Gets better as it goes along.

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67

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The picture itself is only mechanically breezy.

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60

Empire Helen O'Hara

While its tone occasionally wavers and there are some wobbly performances, this has moments of true lightness, and a welcome sense of whimsy often missing in the costume genre.

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58

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

This may have been fertile grounds for satire in 1925, when Noel Coward's drawing-room melodrama Easy Virtue debuted on the stage, but by now this film version feels rather done.

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58

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Easy Virtue has aspirations to be much more than a comedy. It wants to flay, if only with a penknife, the entire British class system.

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50

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Anything but light on its feet. It lumbers instead of dazzles, drags where it should feint and jab.

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50

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Full of forced jocularity and drawing-room hissy fits, with its cast parading around in vintage threads and antique cars, Easy Virtue is a close-to-insufferable souffle based on the 1925 Noel Coward play.

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50

Washington Post Dan Zak

Blame the wafer-thin adaptation by Sheridan Jobbins and director Stephan Elliott. What might've been a scrumptious, chocolatey dessert of a movie -- a Noel Coward delite -- is instead a scoop of lemon ice, not filling, faintly sweet and mostly water.

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50

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

If you're looking for a simple-minded farce with campy overtones, this 2008 feature might be your dish.

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50

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Easy Virtue needs a strong center to justify its celebration of American effrontery, and Biel lacks that prideful edge.

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50

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

We could all use a little more Noel Coward in our lives. But the fizz falls flat in Stephan Elliot's adaptation of a lesser-known play, which, while blithe enough, has little spirit to speak of.

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50

Boston Globe Ty Burr

iIf you can ignore a ridiculously overbearing soundtrack - a big if - the film's a pleasant bauble. Still, those coming in cold may be forgiven for thinking they've wandered into "Atonement" remade as a farce.

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50

NPR Bob Mondello

The upside of a Coward-powered letdown is that I had plenty of time to contemplate one particularly improbable fact about Easy Virtue: that it had a previous incarnation on film. As, of all things, a silent picture.

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50

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Shot in country fields and interiors of fading Georgian glory, Easy Virtue has enough traces of Coward's wit to keep you hoping for the first hour or so, but then the film collapses under the weight of too many misguided innovations.

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40

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

It may tell you everything you need to know about Easy Virtue to note that Hollywood hottie Jessica Biel receives top billing over veteran Brit thesps Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth.

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38

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Easy Virtue may be a bauble, as Larita's described at one point, but Coward's examination of hypocrisy demands real skill. The style should suggest "whipped cream with knives," as Stephen Sondheim once described "A Little Night Music." Elliott's film is more like curdled milk with a spork.

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38

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A crass, heavy- handed and -- most unforgivably -- largely laugh-free adaptation of The Master's infrequently revived 1924 comic melodrama.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 12 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jay H gave it a6:
Flawed and a bit stagy, but quite entertaining. The cast is good. The art direction and costumes are memorable. Good story and score. Colin Firth is the best in the cast.

Tony O gave it an8:
The critical reviews of this one puzzled me a bit with their overwhelming condescension. Luckily the punters are more tuned in to what this really is - which is a pretty well done period piece, based on a fairly savage piece of social critique by a master of cynical stagecraft - Noel Coward. Plus, in its favour, it is sometimes hilarious, and has a number of set pieces that work - and admittedly, a couple that don't. Nevertheless, I liked this a lot better than many of the recent attempts to mount period 30's dramas- eg Brideshead Revisited, or the numerous Poirot and Miss Marple revisions. The movie wasn't just a wallow in nostalgia, for one thing - and some of the emotional issues and conflicts certainly went beyond the usual facile mugging by UK character actors. And personally, I liked the soundtrack, though I can see why some people might find it a bit obtrusive. The key performances by Jessica Biel and Kristen Scott-Thomas are a hoot , and sometimes quite touching as well. The whole thing was surprisingly entertaining.

Vickie M gave it an8:
The story was a little simple, but the acting more than overcame this slight weakness. Excellent performances from Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin FIrth, and Jessica Biel (a surprise). The setting in an old English country house was terrific - the vintage interiors and costumes were wonderful.

dwight c gave it a7:
An authentic comedy, realistic slapstick and a beautiful setting.

Richard W gave it an8:
Captures Coward's cynicism and sharp humor in a great cast -- Scott Thomas, Firth, Biel -- marked down by Director's strange musical intrusions.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Surprisingly entertaining - I grinned from start to finish. A nice Saturday afternoon diversion - with perfect casting.

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