Review

Review Date: 21-June-09
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Easy Virtue (2009)

The title Easy Virtue refers to both a slur upon the film's protagonist and the traditional shallowness that makes blue bloods think image is everything. Based on a play by Noel Coward, the movie is one of those veddy British tales where elite characters wear vintage clothing, patronize the servants, and eagerly await the next fox hunt. The dropping of an American among the tweed suggests a farce, a way to set off aristocratic absurdity, but these things are rarely as simple as they seem. Indeed, Easy Virtue attempts quite a lot of seriousness with its humor and unfortunately fails to reconcile, or fully realize, its moods.

The leading lady is the central weakness of the film. As an American bombshell named Larita, Jessica Biel offers brassy beauty without any of the power or finesse needed to steer a cast through revelation, heartache, and social comedy. Larita has just married a young nobleman (Ben Barnes) and been brought to his family estate for introductions. The smitten bridegroom is the darling of his mother and sisters and is due to become head of the household since his father (Colin Firth) returned shell-shocked from World War I and is now a cynical layabout. It is not easy for Larita to fit in with her new relatives, nor for her husband to recognize how awkward a situation his passion has caused.

Her new mother-in-law (Kristin Scott Thomas) abhors Larita from the first, and the two women clash with increasing ferocity. Scott Thomas' steely intensity only highlights Biel's insignificance. We are meant to sympathize with Larita and even come to view her as the one character with real integrity, yet she is aggravatingly one-dimensional. As she is the lynchpin, the other, better actors cannot fill the gap Biel creates, and in fact everybody's secrets and pains are doled out so ineptly that no one feels entirely fleshed out. Several times I wanted to embrace one person or another but could not get a hold of them before their role shifted or they were set aside for a spot of drollness. Subtle storytelling or a strong star might have allowed us to laugh and cry at these people's stunted dreams, but this movie has neither. Easy Virtue extols depth over superficiality yet only skims the surface of its characters' lives.

Copyright © 2009 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.