Easy Virtue

Noel Coward's satire of the old world aristocracy clashing with the modern world of post-World War I England gets a bouncy, busy, tone-deaf treatment from director Stephan Elliot. American adventuress Jessica Biel sweeps into the musty manor of British aristocracy and runs into its brittle matriarch (Kristin Scott Thomas). Colin Firth, as the disillusioned father, delivers Coward's lines with both dry wit and sad resignation, but the rest is a confused and clumsy mix of drawing room comedy, screwball farce and quasi-musical. Available on DVD and Blu-ray. All versions feature commentary by Elliot and writer Sheridan Jobbins, deleted scenes and a featurette on the New York premiere among the supplements.