RSS

 

Noel Coward's 1924 play "Easy Virtue" has a peculiar history of adaptation.

The 1927 Alfred Hitchcock silent went its own melodramatic way, without the benefit of Coward's rejoinders but with some clever visual suspense flourishes.

Now the Australian director and screenwriter Stephan Elliott, best known for "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," has pulled the material in the opposite direction, going for camp and slapstick and bizarre musical interpolations.

Such as?

The theme song from "Car Wash," redone as a tea-dance ditty. I like the theme song from "Car Wash." I like Coward. Put them in the same room, however, and you have an example of why "Easy Virtue" resists nearly everything Elliott throws at it.

The central female role has been Americanized, more in theory than in practice.

You have to wonder why screenwriters Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins didn't go further, so the emancipated Detroit road-rally ace, Larita, played by Jessica Biel, didn't have to sound so indelibly English. (She says things like, "I refuse to invest in amateur theatrics to convince you of my sincerity.") Coward's verbal dexterity proves elusive, and as she struggles with her character, the movie struggles along with her.

It's love at first sight for young Johnny (Ben Barnes) and "Larry" (Biel).

They marry, and Johnny's family instantly disapproves, none more so than the bitter matriarch played by Kristin Scott Thomas. She delivers a second-balcony performance, meaning it might work better if viewed from the second balcony.

Elliott's notion is to pitch "Easy Virtue" almost shrilly at first and then humanize the situation, which involves the precarious family manor's fortunes and the story behind the death of Larita's first husband.

Elliott nearly turns the whole affair into a musical, with characters singing snatches of Coward and Cole Porter songs. But his sense of humor is extremely broad. Scoring a fox-hunt sequence to "Sex Bomb" -- leave that stuff to Baz Luhrmann.

 

As the Great War veteran and sardonic patriarch of his starchy brood, Colin Firth alone resembles a human being on planet Earth, underplaying with an effectively melancholy air. He's excellent.

"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.

 

 

"Easy Virtue" Movie Trailer

 

Receive Movie Reviews
Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

 

 

Easy Virtue MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sexual content, brief partial nudity and smoking throughout).

Running time: 1:36.

Starring: Jessica Biel (Larita); Colin Firth (Mr. Whittaker); Kristin Scott Thomas (Mrs. Whittaker); Ben Barnes (John).

Directed by Stephan Elliott;

written by Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins, based on the play by Noel Coward;

produced by Barnaby Thompson, Joe Abrams and James D. Stern.

A Sony Pictures Classics release.

 

Recent Movie Reviews - Films in Theaters

Up
Ed Asner & Christopher Plummer in the Pixar Animated Feature Up

Balloon salesman Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) shared a dream with his wife to visit South America. After his wife dies, Carl's yearning for adventure dies as well. Yet it rises again, and "Up" becomes a chronicle of an unlikely friendship between Carl and an 8-year-old (Jordan Nagai). This Disney-Pixar film feels nervy and adventurous and a little messy, the result of formidable creators working on an enormous budget, enormously well-spent.

 

Drag Me to Hell
Alison Lohman & Justin Long in Drag Me to Hell

Director Sam Raimi gets back to his disreputable roots with this hellaciously effective B-movie that comes with a handy moral tucked inside its scares, laughs and scare/laugh hybrids. Moral: Be nice to people. More specifically: Do not foreclose on the old Gypsy woman. Horror fans shouldn't worry about an excess of subtlety; the ook flows freely here.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian
Ben Stiller & Amy Adams in Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

Ben Stiller reprises the role of the Museum of Natural History security guard who saved the day in the 2006 original, making peace among the warring tribes and beasts and magically energized figurines.

Here, the old gang, including the mammoth Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), mini-cowboy Jed (Owen Wilson) and micro-Roman Octavius (Steve Coogan), are being shipped off for storage in the bowels of the Smithsonian Institution.

 

Terminator Salvation
Christian Bale & Sam Worthington in Terminator Salvation

This fourth edition of the "Terminator" franchise stars Christian Bale as John Connor, living out his destiny to save the world from the killing machines introduced in 1984. In director McG's new world order, the machines rule with enforcers of every shape roaming the land. If you're a "Terminator" fan, "Salvation" is mostly worth it. There are plenty of pyrotechnics and artillery. And when the story starts to crumble around Bale, Sam Worthington, playing a gunslinging warrior, is usually there to pick up the pieces.

The Brothers Bloom
Mark Ruffalo & Adrien Brody in The Brothers Bloom

Two con-man brothers (Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody) travel the world in search of great marks. One day they meet Penelope (Rachel Weisz), and from the carefully orchestrated moment she drives her canary-yellow Lamborghini into their lives, their cons take on new meaning.

Angels & Demons
Tom Hanks & Ewan McGregor in Angels & Demons

On the heels of the 2006 adaptation of Dan Brown's best-seller "The Da Vinci Code," Tom Hanks returns to the dullest role of his career, once again under the direction of Ron Howard, who takes the material as seriously as a kidney stone on the way out.

"Angels & Demons" is the same sort of lumbering mediocrity that "Da Vinci Code" was. ...

Management
Jennifer Aniston & Steve Zahn in Management

This adaptation of Stephen Belber's one-act play is laid out as a series of trysts between a tightly controlled lost soul who sells corporate motel-room art (Jennifer Aniston) and the foggy-headed manager (Steve Zahn) of a roadside motel in Arizona.

Star Trek
Chris Pine & Zachary Quinto in Star Trek

The new "Star Trek" seeks to extend a lucrative brand with a young demographic. But it's a real movie -- breathlessly paced bordering on manic, but propulsively entertaining. The script ping-pongs early on between Iowa and Vulcan, as the destinies of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) entwine.

Next Day Air
Donald Faison & Mike Epps in Next Day Air

Donald Faison of TV's "Scrubs" plays a marijuana-addled Philadelphia courier who drops a box of cocaine at the wrong apartment. The intended recipient (Cisco Reyes) realizes he's a dead man unless he retrieves the shipment, now in the hands of two astonished dealers (Mike Epps, Wood Harris). "Next Day Air" is sort of bracing, though it isn't very good.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Hugh Jackman & Liev Schreiber in X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Here and there you get what you want from an "X-Men" prequel, thanks to the irrepressible Hugh Jackman and several other members of the cast, including Liev Schreiber as Wolverine's nemesis, Sabretooth.

But there's a rote quality to the proceedings ...

 

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Matthew McConaughey & Jennifer Garner in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past the Movie

If you look up the word "typecasting" in the dictionary, you'll find Matthew McConaughey's smirk affixed to this film's title. Nonetheless, this Lothario-learns-a-lesson comedy offers a few guilty chuckles. Riffing on "A Christmas Carol," the script concerns a caddish fashion photographer (McConaughey) who spends his days lining up femmes ...

Is Anybody There?
Michael Caine & Bill Milner in "Is Anybody There?" the Movie

This finely drawn British drama is propelled by another of Michael Caine's unforgettable screen portraits. Caine plays an aging magician struggling to keep hold of his dignity and his mind in the face of old age. He has been packed off to an old-age home in a small seaside town, where he discovers an unexpected friendship with an inquisitive but pensive 10-year-old ...

Tyson
Mike Tyson Movie Review by Kenneth Turan

"Tyson" is not a conventional film biography. There is no variety of viewpoints, no back and forth about episodes in his life, and, except for interview footage from the past, no other voices heard. What you get is Mike Tyson, former heavyweight champion, former substance abuser, former prison inmate, talking ...