Easy Virtue

Glossy but ho-hum retread of an early Noel Coward play (1924), adapted by director and co-writer Stephen Elliott, wherein a landed young Englishman (Ben Barnes) brings home his vivacious new bride, a glamorous American widow (likable Jessica Biel) with a "past," who clashes with her husband's stodgy mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) and sisters, though winning the admiration of his more bohemian father (Colin Firth). The colorful period and background tunes are enjoyable, but performances are generally flat and the dated and unconvincing story is further sabotaged by a couple of morally problematic plot additions. Unconventional view of marriage, divorce, assisted suicide, nongraphic sexual marital encounters, brief rear and partial nudity, some crass language and heavy smoking. O -- morally offensive. (PG-13) 2009

Easy Virtue (Full Review)

Easy Virtue" (Sony Classics) is a glossy but dramatically uncertain retread of an early Noel Coward play (1924), adapted by Australian director and co-writer Stephen Elliott of "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" fame.

Though not one of Coward's best, it was still enough of a hit on both sides of the Atlantic to be brought to the screen as a silent film, directed by none other than Alfred Hitchcock, long before honing his image as the master of suspense.

The basic plot is this: A landed young Englishman, John Whittaker (Ben Barnes), brings home his vivacious new bride, the glamorous American Larita (likable Jessica Biel) -- in the play a divorcee, but here a widow -- who clashes with her husband's stodgy mother, Mrs. Whittaker (Kristin Scott Thomas), and repressed sisters. (In the play, one was a religious fanatic.) Larita is a woman with, as they used to say, a past.

She wins the admiration of John's more bohemian father, Mr. Whittaker (Colin Firth), and bonds, quite improbably, with his childhood sweetheart, Sara (Charlotte Riley in her film debut). The latter is clearly the more suitable match for the at-heart traditional groom.

Country life proves anathema for the free-spirited Larita, who predictably comes to feel constricted by the stodgy and "conventional" family. John is almost persuaded to take her abroad until, that is, his mother reveals that the family is nearly bankrupt.

The colorful period and background tunes are enjoyable in themselves, if cliched (Coward's own "Mad About the Boy" and Cole Porter's "Let's Misbehave"), some performed by Biel and others in the cast.

But despite a lush production design, performances are, sorry to say, generally flat, and no one -- not even the estimable Thomas -- is at his or her best here. Despite some flashy filmic touches from Elliott, "Easy Virtue" seems dated, and in trying to turn a drawing room tragicomedy into a breezy romp registers as false to the original.

The rickety old Hitchcock film -- which plays as pure melodrama -- is, in fact, closer to the mark.

The unconvincing story -- one never believes for a second that Larita, in the person of the vivacious Biel, would ever hook up with this family, despite the charms of her frisky young husband -- is further sabotaged by a couple of extremely morally problematic plot additions, one involving euthanasia and the other a denouement that further underscores the plot's already questionable view of marriage.

Those elements -- rather than any overt on-screen sex or language problems -- necessitate the restrictive classification.

Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.