Easy Virtue
Director: Stephan Elliott
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 1.0
It should come as some (small) consolation to Mr. Elliott that not even Hitchcock could get this one right (though to Hitch's credit he didn't make it in the sound era). An Englishman marries a free-wheeling American celebrity (Jessica Biel, out of her league) with a taste for fast cars and a 'history' (she was on trial for murder), which only stands to infuriate the young man's snippy mother (Kristen Scott Thomas). Colin Firth makes an impression as the burned-out father - sporting stubble, smoking cigarettes and always ready with a quick response - but the picture has a lifeless air about it, which doubly insults me because I am a huge fan of Sir Noël Coward's work and wit and adaptations of his material should be made with a modicum of inspiration at the very least (and no, playing an alternative version of Tom Jones' "Sex Bomb" during a fox hunt is not inspired).
