Easy Virtue
by moviegirl13 on Oct.27, 2009, under 3 stars, Comedy, She says...
For all intents and purpose, I really enjoyed this movie. It took a while to get into the plot and understand what they were talking about, but after about 10 minutes of introducing the characters and setting, it is a fun film. It is about an American girl who marries a young Englishman from a seemingly wealthy family. You can guess the general plot line from there: girl versus overbearing mother-in-law. They both hold their own quite well, and watching the battle is fun for both the on screen characters as well as the off screen viewers.
The actors are all very well cast. Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian: Chronicles of Narnia) plays the young husband, John. Jessica Biel plays the young bride, Larita. Colin Firth, always brilliant, is the reserved and very distant father in contrast to Kristin Scott Thomas’ overbearing and tightly wound mother in law, Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker. There is an assortment of other characters in the film, such as the nagging spinster sisters and the nosey neighbors, but the true highlight has got to be the family butler, Furber. Kris Marshall is the actor, who might be best known as “Colin, god of sex” in Love, Actually. He is full of wry one liners and subtly hysterical facial expressions.
Like I said earlier, the battle between the mother and daughter-in-law is the driving force of the film. They continually trump each other in the effort to convince John (Barnes) what to do with the couples future. Larita (Biel) wishes to move to the city, while the mother wants him to stay at the family home and take over its care. One of the most clever scenes is during the annual fox hunt. Mrs. Whitaker (Scott-Thomas) insists that Larita ride, and she agrees, but what she doesn’t tell her is that she chooses to ride a horse of a different kind: a motorcycle. The scenes are charming and full of quick humor.
My only complaint about this film is the relationship between Larita and her father-in-law (Firth). It seems innocent and kind, but at the end they share a dance that leads the viewer to believe it is something more. The end, which I do not want to give away, certainly makes us feel as though we’ve been missing something the entire time. But all in all, I thought it was a fun film, which doesn’t require too much thought, just perhaps turn on the subtitles.