Easy Virtue (2009 film)
Encyclopedia
Easy Virtue is a 2008 British-Canadian romantic comedy film
based on Noël Coward
's play of the same name
. The play was previously made into the silent movie Easy Virtue (1928) by Alfred Hitchcock
. This adaptation is directed by Stephan Elliott
, written by Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins
, and stars Jessica Biel
, Ben Barnes
, Colin Firth
and Kristin Scott Thomas
. The score contains many Coward and jazz-age songs, some of which are sung, or partially sung by the cast.
Easy Virtue is a social comedy in which a glamorous American widow, Larita, impetuously marries a young Englishman, John Whittaker, in the South of France. When they return to England to meet his parents, his mother takes a strong dislike to their new daughter-in-law, while his father, Jim, finds a kindred spirit. Family tensions escalate.
The film was screened at the Toronto Film Festival and London Film Festival
prior to its 7 November release by Pathé
in the UK. Subsequently, the film was also screened at the Rio International Film Festival, Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi, and the Rome Film Festival. It closed the Adelaide Film Festival
prior to the Australian theatrical release on March 12, 2009. In May 2009 it was released in theatres in the U.S.
In the United States, the film enjoyed some commercial success. Sony Pictures Classics
paid an estimated $1 million to acquire the film's distribution rights in the United States, Latin America and South Africa. The film went on to gross $2.5 million in limited theatrical release in the United States
.
), meets young John Whittaker (Ben Barnes
) in Monaco
. They marry, and he takes his bride home to meet his family at their dauntingly large rural mansion, where seven generations of Whittakers have been gentleman farmers. There she meets her icy cold mother-in-law, Veronica (Kristin Scott Thomas
) and disheveled, sad-eyed father-in-law, Major Jim Whittaker (Colin Firth
).
Veronica, already predisposed to dislike her new daughter-in-law ("John's floozy") is further disappointed to find that she is a brash American who, like the Major, speaks fluent French. Larita also meets John's former girlfriend and neighbour Sarah Hurst (Charlotte Riley
), who is gracious about the marriage. Larita remains calm in the face of her new mother-in-law's disdain, even being so bold as to reveal having been previously married. Veronica intuits that John will soon tire of his wife and hopes the marriage will end in divorce. She works on making Larita unhappy, while making John content to stay.
Time passes, and to Larita's disappointment, John is not eager to leave the estate so that they can find a home of their own. Larita is bored and miserable in the countryside and hates blood sport
s like hunting. She reads Lady Chatterley's Lover
, by D.H. Lawrence, which shocks her husband's female relatives, and she doesn't want to play tennis. She also dislikes Veronica's stuffy decor, her constant entertaining of her stuffy friends and the overcooked food. Worse still, she suffers from hay fever
. She tries to get along with her mother-in-law, but Veronica refuses to accept her and resents her attempts to bring some fresh air into the situation.
Larita makes some inadvertent gaffes, accidentally killing the family chihuahua and giving some joking advice to the younger daughter, Hilda (Kimberley Nixon
), that unfortunately results in embarrassment to, and enmity from, the daughters. Sarah comes to the Whittakers' parties, and to play tennis, accompanied by her brother Philip (Christian Brassington
), on whom Hilda has a crush. Philip, however, is infatuated with Larita, which further angers Hilda. To Veronica's horror, she and her hunting party discover John and Larita making love in an outbuilding. Larita finds herself increasingly isolated and demoralized by her mother-in-law's derision, verbal attacks and dirty tricks. Larita's only sympathetic friends are the Major and the servants, whom she treats better than does Veronica. Larita retreats to the Major's workshop to help him work on his motorcycle. Still troubled from having lost all his men in the war, Jim Whittaker has lost interest in his home, and there is no love between him and his wife.
The Whittaker estate has fallen on hard times. Larita's handsome and charming young husband, once in the shadow of his dragon-lady mother, loses his independence and seems immature to her as he is drawn into family life. In addition, John's affection for Larita seems to be waning, as complains about his wife to Sarah, who finds his overture inappropriate. When John learns how bad the financial situation is for the family, his sense of responsibility to his family brings him closer to his mother and drives a wedge between him and his wife, as his mother had hoped.
Finally, Hilda obtains a newspaper cutting revealing scandalous secrets about Larita's first marriage to a much older man who was dying of cancer: she had helped him die using poison. John withdraws from Larita, while the Major scolds his daughters for their cruelty. At Veronica's next big party, John refuses to dance with Larita, so the Major dances a tango with her. She determines to leave the marriage, and on her way out of the mansion, she apologizes to Sarah for having interrupted her relationship with John. She hopes that Sarah will take John back. Veronica shows up, and an argument ensues in which Veronica and Larita trade barbs. Larita finally leaves, but the Major goes with her. Furber (Kris Marshall
), the family butler, wishes them well.
and Sheridan Jobbins
but hardly any feature of the original play remains besides the main characters and even they don't much resemble Coward's cast.
In his autobiography, Present Indicative published in 1937, Coward describes his object in the play as being "to compare the declasse woman of to-day with the more flamboyant demi-mondaine of the 1890s." He goes on to say, "The line that was intended to establish the play on a basis of comedy rather than tragedy, comes at the end of the second act when Larita, the heroine, irritated beyond endurance by the smug attitude of her 'in-laws', argues them out of the room."
Although the play was made into a silent film
in 1928 directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Isabel Jeans
and Franklin Dyall
, this film is not mentioned in Coward's autobiography. The 2008 version of the film is favourably reviewed by the Noël Coward Society.
instructed Kristin Scott Thomas
to play Mrs. Whittaker as a "mustache-twirling... Disney witch." Initially, the actress responded by suggesting this is the worst direction she had ever received, but later embraced her character's wickedness and somewhat haggard appearance and unflattering wardrobe.
and the film's director Stephan Elliott
. It features several songs by Cole Porter
and Noël Coward
. It is performed by The Easy Virtue Orchestra - which was assembled specifically for the film. Jessica Biel
makes her musical debut singing two tracks which are featured on the soundtrack album. Ben Barnes
sings several songs on the sound track, including "Room With a View", while Colin Firth
makes a guest appearance on the closing track.
A soundtrack album was released on November 3, 2008 in stores and on iTunes
.
Featured in the closing credits is a cover version, in 1920's faux-jazz style, of "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" (c. 1986), performed by Colin Firth, Ben Barnes, Jessica Biel, and Andy Caine. The song was written by Billy Ocean
, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Wayne Brathwaite, and Barry Eastmond.
gives the film a score of 53% based on 120 reviews.
Metacritic
gives the film a score of 58% based on reviews from 28 critics.
Colm Andrew of the Manx Independent
gave the film 7/10 and said it was "a frothy affair but the source material is good - the script is workmanlike but at least it doesn't try to be clever and the quality of the acting makes sure the lines resonate soundly". Some critics felt that the movie’s insistent jazz-age lilt is ultimately at odds with a play written in 1924 that attacks the hypocrisy, smugness and benighted values of the English landed gentry between the wars. The screenplay includes scattered Coward bons mots, but the witticisms don’t come as thick or as fast as in his later plays.
Broadsheet and national British reviews were generally mixed or negative. Film Four's praised the casting of Biel and noted that, though Firth's and Thomas's casting was "hardly radical thinking, both offer something different from their previous period work".
Philip French of the Observer wrote that the film was "well enough designed and photographed, but witless, anachronistic, cloth-eared, lacking in both style and period sense", while Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian attacked its script for "undermin[ing] the material by slipping arch modern phrases and gags into everyone's mouths".
The critic of the Times awarded it only one star out of five, whilst Nicholas Barber of the Independent wrote that "every one of Elliott's straining efforts to turn Easy Virtue into a zany, risqué farce only makes it seems stuffier and starchier".
The film earned $2,656,784 in the United States and Canada, Sony Pictures Classics
paid an estimated $1 million for distribution rights in the United States, Latin America and South Africa.
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
based on Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's play of the same name
Easy Virtue (play)
Easy Virtue is a three-act play by Noël Coward. He wrote it in 1924 when he was 25 years old, and it is his 16th play. The play had a successful first run in New York in 1925 and then opened in London in 1926...
. The play was previously made into the silent movie Easy Virtue (1928) by Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
. This adaptation is directed by Stephan Elliott
Stephan Elliott
Stephan Elliott is an Australian film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Elliott began his career as an assistant director working in the boom of the Australian film industry of the 1980s....
, written by Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins
Sheridan Jobbins
Sheridan Jobbins is an Australian journalist, television presenter and screenwriter.-Life and career:Jobbins was born in Melbourne, Australia. She was educated at Ascham School Edgecliff...
, and stars Jessica Biel
Jessica Biel
Jessica Claire Biel is an American actress, model, and occasional singer. Biel is known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven...
, Ben Barnes
Ben Barnes (actor)
Benjamin Thomas "Ben" Barnes is an English actor, best known for his portrayal of Caspian X in The Chronicles of Narnia films Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.-Early life and education:...
, Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
and Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....
. The score contains many Coward and jazz-age songs, some of which are sung, or partially sung by the cast.
Easy Virtue is a social comedy in which a glamorous American widow, Larita, impetuously marries a young Englishman, John Whittaker, in the South of France. When they return to England to meet his parents, his mother takes a strong dislike to their new daughter-in-law, while his father, Jim, finds a kindred spirit. Family tensions escalate.
The film was screened at the Toronto Film Festival and London Film Festival
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
prior to its 7 November release by Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
in the UK. Subsequently, the film was also screened at the Rio International Film Festival, Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi, and the Rome Film Festival. It closed the Adelaide Film Festival
Adelaide Film Festival
The Adelaide Film Festival is a biennial and non-competitive film festival held over two weeks in late February, in Adelaide, South Australia....
prior to the Australian theatrical release on March 12, 2009. In May 2009 it was released in theatres in the U.S.
In the United States, the film enjoyed some commercial success. Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
paid an estimated $1 million to acquire the film's distribution rights in the United States, Latin America and South Africa. The film went on to gross $2.5 million in limited theatrical release in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Plot
Larita, a glamorous American widow and successful racecar driver (Jessica BielJessica Biel
Jessica Claire Biel is an American actress, model, and occasional singer. Biel is known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven...
), meets young John Whittaker (Ben Barnes
Ben Barnes (actor)
Benjamin Thomas "Ben" Barnes is an English actor, best known for his portrayal of Caspian X in The Chronicles of Narnia films Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.-Early life and education:...
) in Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
. They marry, and he takes his bride home to meet his family at their dauntingly large rural mansion, where seven generations of Whittakers have been gentleman farmers. There she meets her icy cold mother-in-law, Veronica (Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....
) and disheveled, sad-eyed father-in-law, Major Jim Whittaker (Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
).
Veronica, already predisposed to dislike her new daughter-in-law ("John's floozy") is further disappointed to find that she is a brash American who, like the Major, speaks fluent French. Larita also meets John's former girlfriend and neighbour Sarah Hurst (Charlotte Riley
Charlotte Riley
Charlotte Riley is an English actress. She is best known for her role Sarah Hurst in Easy Virtue and as Catherine Earnshaw in ITV's adaptation of Wuthering Heights.-Personal life:...
), who is gracious about the marriage. Larita remains calm in the face of her new mother-in-law's disdain, even being so bold as to reveal having been previously married. Veronica intuits that John will soon tire of his wife and hopes the marriage will end in divorce. She works on making Larita unhappy, while making John content to stay.
Time passes, and to Larita's disappointment, John is not eager to leave the estate so that they can find a home of their own. Larita is bored and miserable in the countryside and hates blood sport
Blood sport
Bloodsport or blood sport is any sport or entertainment that involves violence against animals.Bloodsport includes coursing or beagling, combat sports such as cockfighting and dog fighting, or other activities...
s like hunting. She reads Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1928. The first edition was printed privately in Florence, Italy with assistance from Pino Orioli; it could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960...
, by D.H. Lawrence, which shocks her husband's female relatives, and she doesn't want to play tennis. She also dislikes Veronica's stuffy decor, her constant entertaining of her stuffy friends and the overcooked food. Worse still, she suffers from hay fever
Hay Fever
Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
. She tries to get along with her mother-in-law, but Veronica refuses to accept her and resents her attempts to bring some fresh air into the situation.
Larita makes some inadvertent gaffes, accidentally killing the family chihuahua and giving some joking advice to the younger daughter, Hilda (Kimberley Nixon
Kimberley Nixon
Kimberley Nixon is a Welsh actress.-Early and personal life:Born in Bristol, Nixon and her six brothers were brought up in Pontypridd, Wales, where she attended Coedylan Comprehensive School, now known as Pontypridd High School.In October 2011 Nixon was announced by Wales Online as number one in...
), that unfortunately results in embarrassment to, and enmity from, the daughters. Sarah comes to the Whittakers' parties, and to play tennis, accompanied by her brother Philip (Christian Brassington
Christian Brassington
Christian Brassington is a British actor. He trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and attended Basingstoke Stageschool from a young age.-Career:...
), on whom Hilda has a crush. Philip, however, is infatuated with Larita, which further angers Hilda. To Veronica's horror, she and her hunting party discover John and Larita making love in an outbuilding. Larita finds herself increasingly isolated and demoralized by her mother-in-law's derision, verbal attacks and dirty tricks. Larita's only sympathetic friends are the Major and the servants, whom she treats better than does Veronica. Larita retreats to the Major's workshop to help him work on his motorcycle. Still troubled from having lost all his men in the war, Jim Whittaker has lost interest in his home, and there is no love between him and his wife.
The Whittaker estate has fallen on hard times. Larita's handsome and charming young husband, once in the shadow of his dragon-lady mother, loses his independence and seems immature to her as he is drawn into family life. In addition, John's affection for Larita seems to be waning, as complains about his wife to Sarah, who finds his overture inappropriate. When John learns how bad the financial situation is for the family, his sense of responsibility to his family brings him closer to his mother and drives a wedge between him and his wife, as his mother had hoped.
Finally, Hilda obtains a newspaper cutting revealing scandalous secrets about Larita's first marriage to a much older man who was dying of cancer: she had helped him die using poison. John withdraws from Larita, while the Major scolds his daughters for their cruelty. At Veronica's next big party, John refuses to dance with Larita, so the Major dances a tango with her. She determines to leave the marriage, and on her way out of the mansion, she apologizes to Sarah for having interrupted her relationship with John. She hopes that Sarah will take John back. Veronica shows up, and an argument ensues in which Veronica and Larita trade barbs. Larita finally leaves, but the Major goes with her. Furber (Kris Marshall
Kris Marshall
Kristopher "Kris" Marshall is an English actor, best known for his role as Nick Harper in My Family, and as Adam in the adverts for BT Group since 2005.-Career:...
), the family butler, wishes them well.
Cast
- Jessica BielJessica BielJessica Claire Biel is an American actress, model, and occasional singer. Biel is known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven...
as Larita Whittaker, a glamorous American widow and race car driver - Ben BarnesBen Barnes (actor)Benjamin Thomas "Ben" Barnes is an English actor, best known for his portrayal of Caspian X in The Chronicles of Narnia films Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.-Early life and education:...
as John Whittaker - Colin FirthColin FirthSirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
as Major Jim Whittaker - Kristin Scott ThomasKristin Scott ThomasKristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....
as Mrs. Veronica Whittaker - Kimberley NixonKimberley NixonKimberley Nixon is a Welsh actress.-Early and personal life:Born in Bristol, Nixon and her six brothers were brought up in Pontypridd, Wales, where she attended Coedylan Comprehensive School, now known as Pontypridd High School.In October 2011 Nixon was announced by Wales Online as number one in...
as Hilda Whittaker - Katherine ParkinsonKatherine ParkinsonLaura Katherine Parkinson is an English actress and comedian who is known for playing the part of Jen Barber in the Channel 4 comedy series The IT Crowd...
as Marion Whittaker - Kris MarshallKris MarshallKristopher "Kris" Marshall is an English actor, best known for his role as Nick Harper in My Family, and as Adam in the adverts for BT Group since 2005.-Career:...
as Furber the butler - Christian BrassingtonChristian BrassingtonChristian Brassington is a British actor. He trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and attended Basingstoke Stageschool from a young age.-Career:...
as Philip Hurst - Charlotte RileyCharlotte RileyCharlotte Riley is an English actress. She is best known for her role Sarah Hurst in Easy Virtue and as Catherine Earnshaw in ITV's adaptation of Wuthering Heights.-Personal life:...
as Sarah Hurst - Jim McManus as Jackson
- Pip TorrensPip TorrensPip Torrens is an English actor.He was born in Bromley, Kent, England. He studied English Literature at Trinity College, Cambridge...
as Lord Hurst - Georgia Glen as Mrs. Langridon
- Stephan Elliot and Sheridan JobbinsSheridan JobbinsSheridan Jobbins is an Australian journalist, television presenter and screenwriter.-Life and career:Jobbins was born in Melbourne, Australia. She was educated at Ascham School Edgecliff...
(uncredited) as Grumpy party guests
Writing
Coward's play was adapted to the screen by Stephan ElliottStephan Elliott
Stephan Elliott is an Australian film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Elliott began his career as an assistant director working in the boom of the Australian film industry of the 1980s....
and Sheridan Jobbins
Sheridan Jobbins
Sheridan Jobbins is an Australian journalist, television presenter and screenwriter.-Life and career:Jobbins was born in Melbourne, Australia. She was educated at Ascham School Edgecliff...
but hardly any feature of the original play remains besides the main characters and even they don't much resemble Coward's cast.
In his autobiography, Present Indicative published in 1937, Coward describes his object in the play as being "to compare the declasse woman of to-day with the more flamboyant demi-mondaine of the 1890s." He goes on to say, "The line that was intended to establish the play on a basis of comedy rather than tragedy, comes at the end of the second act when Larita, the heroine, irritated beyond endurance by the smug attitude of her 'in-laws', argues them out of the room."
Although the play was made into a silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
in 1928 directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Isabel Jeans
Isabel Jeans
Isabel Jeans was an English stage and film actress known for her roles in several Alfred Hitchcock films, among others.-Career:...
and Franklin Dyall
Franklin Dyall
Franklin Dyall was an English actor.He appeared in 26 films between 1916 and 1948...
, this film is not mentioned in Coward's autobiography. The 2008 version of the film is favourably reviewed by the Noël Coward Society.
Directing
Filmmaker Stephan ElliottStephan Elliott
Stephan Elliott is an Australian film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Elliott began his career as an assistant director working in the boom of the Australian film industry of the 1980s....
instructed Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....
to play Mrs. Whittaker as a "mustache-twirling... Disney witch." Initially, the actress responded by suggesting this is the worst direction she had ever received, but later embraced her character's wickedness and somewhat haggard appearance and unflattering wardrobe.
Music
The score for the film was produced by Marius de VriesMarius de Vries
Marius Van Wyk de Vries is an English music producer and composer. He has been behind some of the key albums and soundtracks of recent times, gathering five Grammy nominations, two BAFTAs, and an Ivor Novello award along the way.-Music Producer:...
and the film's director Stephan Elliott
Stephan Elliott
Stephan Elliott is an Australian film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Elliott began his career as an assistant director working in the boom of the Australian film industry of the 1980s....
. It features several songs by Cole Porter
Cole Porter
Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, he defied the wishes of his domineering grandfather and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn towards musical theatre...
and Noël Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
. It is performed by The Easy Virtue Orchestra - which was assembled specifically for the film. Jessica Biel
Jessica Biel
Jessica Claire Biel is an American actress, model, and occasional singer. Biel is known for her television role as Mary Camden in the long-running family-drama series 7th Heaven...
makes her musical debut singing two tracks which are featured on the soundtrack album. Ben Barnes
Ben Barnes (actor)
Benjamin Thomas "Ben" Barnes is an English actor, best known for his portrayal of Caspian X in The Chronicles of Narnia films Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.-Early life and education:...
sings several songs on the sound track, including "Room With a View", while Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
makes a guest appearance on the closing track.
A soundtrack album was released on November 3, 2008 in stores and on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
.
Featured in the closing credits is a cover version, in 1920's faux-jazz style, of "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" (c. 1986), performed by Colin Firth, Ben Barnes, Jessica Biel, and Andy Caine. The song was written by Billy Ocean
Billy Ocean
Billy Ocean is a Trinidad-born English Grammy Award winning popular music performer who had a string of rhythm and blues international pop hits in the 1970s and 1980s. He was the most popular British-based R&B singer / songwriter of the early to mid-1980s...
, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, Wayne Brathwaite, and Barry Eastmond.
Critical response
Review aggregation website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gives the film a score of 53% based on 120 reviews.
Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gives the film a score of 58% based on reviews from 28 critics.
Colm Andrew of the Manx Independent
Manx Independent
The Manx Independent is a tabloid weekly newspaper in the Isle of Man. It is published every Friday.It is owned by Isle of Man Newspapers, which is now part of Johnston Press....
gave the film 7/10 and said it was "a frothy affair but the source material is good - the script is workmanlike but at least it doesn't try to be clever and the quality of the acting makes sure the lines resonate soundly". Some critics felt that the movie’s insistent jazz-age lilt is ultimately at odds with a play written in 1924 that attacks the hypocrisy, smugness and benighted values of the English landed gentry between the wars. The screenplay includes scattered Coward bons mots, but the witticisms don’t come as thick or as fast as in his later plays.
Broadsheet and national British reviews were generally mixed or negative. Film Four's praised the casting of Biel and noted that, though Firth's and Thomas's casting was "hardly radical thinking, both offer something different from their previous period work".
Philip French of the Observer wrote that the film was "well enough designed and photographed, but witless, anachronistic, cloth-eared, lacking in both style and period sense", while Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian attacked its script for "undermin[ing] the material by slipping arch modern phrases and gags into everyone's mouths".
The critic of the Times awarded it only one star out of five, whilst Nicholas Barber of the Independent wrote that "every one of Elliott's straining efforts to turn Easy Virtue into a zany, risqué farce only makes it seems stuffier and starchier".
Box office
The film earned $18,463,608 worldwide.The film earned $2,656,784 in the United States and Canada, Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...
paid an estimated $1 million for distribution rights in the United States, Latin America and South Africa.