Easy Virtue

Easy Virtue is a 2008 British 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, meets and impetuously marries a young Englishman, John Whittaker, at the Monaco Grand Prix. When they return to England, his mother takes an immediate and strong dislike to her daughter-in-law, while his father finds a kindred spirit. Family tensions escalate. The film was screened at the Toronto International 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 12 March 2009. Plot Set in the early 1930s, Larita meets John Whittaker in Monaco. They marry and he takes his bride to the family mansion near Flintham in rural Nottinghamshire to meet his mother, Veronica Whittaker and father, Major Jim Whittaker and his two sisters, Hilda and Marion. Veronica, already predisposed to dislike her new daughter-in-law, is further disappointed to find that Larita is American and, like Jim, speaks fluent French. Larita also meets John's former girlfriend and neighbour Sarah Hurst, who is gracious about the marriage.