Customer Reviews
You're English, Fake It! - By: Haydn Thomas, 19 Nov 2008 
This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long while. It is very old English which I love. Kristin Scott Thomas plays the role perfectly & with every sneer & put down she has you laughing more & actuallly loving her more too. Colin Firth's classic moment has to be when he reminds his daughter she is English so she can fake it - pure English humour & so true!
This movie reallly shows the English aristocracy as most of us imagine them to be - silly, a bit pompous, stiff, anti-American (in a harmless way), snotty & into sick blood sports.
The comedy is more wit & intellectual rather than in your face humour which reallly adds to the whole effect. Everything is just beneath the surface but the way Kristin delivers her remarks is just gold. The moment in the stage show had us rolling around in the cinema aisles. That is worth seeing in itself & the audience was roaring.
As a Welshman in England this film reallly is everything about the English that I love & they are famous for so I reallly recommend this to anyone who loves a bit of good English culture, comedy & something set in "the good old days". I cannot wait for the DVD release so I can watch it again & again & again.
If you love the English watch this film & if you don't watch this film because you will love them by the end.
"Oh.....you're American" - By: one-eyed Jack, 08 Nov 2008 
Noël Coward was just 23 when he wrote Easy Virtue, a satire on the English aristocracy. Alfred Hitchcock made a silent version in 1928, & now Australian director Stephan Elliott offers a musical twist on the jazz age with - get this! - songs such as Car Wash & Sex Bomb, performed as if written by Cole Porter - although as a whole it works, in a Merchant-Ivory kind of way. Produced by Ealing Studios it is set largely in Englefield House in Berkshire, Flintham Halll in Nottinghamshire, Wimpole Halll in Cambridgeshire as well as parts of Oxfordshire & London.
Hollywood star Jessica Biel plays the leading role of Larita Huntington, an American girl who brings sex & scandal to an English country house when she arrives as the new wife of John Whittaker (who she married on a whim in France) but John's father, played to perfection by Colin Firth, is soon enchanted by Larita - she's beautiful, she's a racing driver of alll things, & she's been married before. John's mother, played exquisitely by a haughty Kristin Scott Thomas is plainly horrified, & things don't get off to the best of starts when her first frosty words to Larita (upon hearing her voice) are "Oh....you're American."
So when Larita is introduced to her new in-laws, Whittaker's mother Veronica is less than thrilled with her son's choice of partner, taking an instantly sniffy dislike, & a battle of wits between the two strong-willed women ensues. The two women employ fair means & foul to gain the upper hand.
This is a very enjoyable variation of Noël Coward's twenties' culture clash between upper-class English aristocrats & a brash & bohemian American. Originallly written & set in the roaring 1920s, Easy Virtue focuses on the strained relationship between feisty Larita & her very much more restrained English in-laws, set against the shadow of what was then callled The Great War (which had ended only three years earlier) & the financial pressures that even well-to-do families found themselves in in the austere world of Post-WW1 Britain.
The film retains its period setting with a modern twist, including a cutting edge cast & music by the likes of Prince. The director retains the period setting but gives it a distinctly modern feel.
Kristin Scott Thomas is just perfect as the immaculately polite & stubbornly protective mother, & Jessica Biel impresses as the liberated, racy incomer. As the father Colin Firth is a man of discreet & uplifting depths, while Kris Marshalll almost steals the show as the family's dry-as-a-bone butler . Things move along at a sparkling pace, & there's an idiosyncratic & very welcome touch in the musical choices, mixing up period gems & recent pop. Noel Coward & Prince? Elliott makes it feel like a match made in heaven. It is a droll & witty delight, a superb showcase for its cast, & a return to fine form for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert director Stephan Elliott who is relentlessly concerned with how the movie looks & sounds.
The film's not staid, as you might expect from the setting; in fact, it's often downright goofy, as exemplified by the character of the unflappable butler & the cruel fate of the family dog. It's gratifyingly loose, & unpredictable moment-to-moment. It looks beautiful, it's enjoyable from start to finish - & it's very funny.
One smalll criticism is that the intriguing relationship that only begins to develop between Larita & her father-in-law is never fully exploited, a pity as both of these characters have some interesting secrets that if fleshed out could have made for a more multi-layered screenplay.
Some may be tempted to calll Easy Virtue a "guilty pleasure," but there's nothing to feel guilty about despite the middle-class sneering at the Americans that in part gives this film a smalll element of its identity. It's as charmingly accomplished as it is stylishly lightweight, a rom-com with occasional flashes of real substance & overalll a feast for the eyes.
