The friction in Easy Virtue crosses class, manner and
continent. John Whittaker (Ben Barnes) returns to his family’s British
estate with his American wife Larita (Jessica Biel). For John’s mother
(Kristin Scott Thomas), pent-up with anger over the decline of the
aristocracy post-WWI, Larita’s carefree manner is vile. The film
version of Noel Coward’s stage play amusingly presents a friction
between the Whittakers’ veneer of liberal sophistication, and Larita’s
liberation. Thomas’ icy performance as family matriarch would only be
more commanding if she weren’t unfairly written as such an asshole.
Mostly, though, Australian director Stephan Elliot (Priscilla,
Queen of the Desert) strikes an agreeably light concoction on the
difference between manner and virtue. When Larita breaks the rules by
befriending the manor’s servants, the fraud of class division is
exposed against basic principles.
Mind your
manners at palermo@thecoast.ca.
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2009.
