'Easy Virtue' update a disappointment
Director: Stephan Elliot
Cast: Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Ben Barnes, Kirsten Scott Thomas
Cert: 12
Based – though merely in the most vague of terms – on the 1920s Noel Coward play, this up-date – though still set in the 1920s – falls flat because Elliot seems unable to understand the master’s brittle humour.
The plot concerns, or should concern, the culture clash between Britain and America, underlined when gad-about Englishman Barnes brings home flash, brassy American Biel, to the disapproval of his mother (Scott Thomas) and the delight of his father (Firth) who sees in the strange creature a kindred spirit.
Firth, indeed, is one of the few saving graces of this disappointing film, Scott Thomas is another, to a lesser extent. But Biel is merely annoying.
Star Rating: 2/5
