Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.
Easy Virtue is a stylish adaptation of Noël Coward's play, elevated significantly by a sharp, charismatic cast — particularly Jessica Biel and Colin Firth, whose comic timing and chemistry anchor the film. The plot, however, is a fairly conventional class-clash comedy of manners that doesn't surprise much beyond its premise. The cinematography is competent and period-appropriate but unremarkable. Novelty suffers because the fish-out-of-water / old-world-vs-new-world dynamic is well-trodden territory, and while the Coward source gives it wit, the film doesn't transcend its genre conventions. The ending is bittersweet and reasonably satisfying, landing with some emotional weight even if it feels rushed.