Bitterness, Broken People and a Touch of Slapstick...Hmmm....

Easy Virtue is a social comedy 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 version is directed by Stephan Elliott, written by Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins, and stars Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, and Kristin Scott Thomas.

A lighthearted adaptation of a Noel Coward play set in the late 1920s, Easy Virtue stars Jessica Biel as Larita, an adventurous American who marries John, the naive, British heir (Ben Barnes) to a crumbling family estate. Whisked into the less-than-receptive bosom of John's kin, Larita soon finds herself drawing the scorn of her mother-in-law (Kristin Scott Thomas), who would have preferred John marry a longtime sweetheart from his own genteel community rather than a brash Yankee. Eager to move to London, Larita knows the longer a post-honeymoon John visits his family the harder it will be for the newlyweds to live on their own terms, and she's right. Giving up on any notion of fitting in, Larita suffers a few embarrassments before fighting back. But nothing can help her once a past scandal encroaches on her dream of happiness.

Cast: Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kimberley Nixon

Director: Stephan Elliott

Screen Writer: Noël Coward, Stephan Elliott, Sheridan Jobbins

DVD Release Date: September 15, 2009

Runtime: 97 minutes

Studio: Sony Pictures