Easy Virtue: Difference between revisions

[[File:biel_ermine_jacket_6106.jpg|frame|From [[Easy Virtue (2008 film)]].]]

Not long after World War One, the Whittaker family awaits the return of their only son John from the continent. To their dismay, he brings a bride; a glamourous American racecar driver. The bride, Larita, thinks she and John will visit and then move to London, where he'll work and she'll race. But John is the heir to the estate, and his mother, Veronica, is nothing if not a master manipulator. Soon it's all-out war between mother and bride. John's father, Colonel Jim Whittaker, finds himself in the bride's corner, along with the family servants; John's sisters, Hilda and Marion, side firmly with their mother, while their neighbours, the wealthy Hurst family, look on.

'''''Easy Virtue''''' was originally [[Easy Virtue (play)|a play]] by [[Noel Coward]], but has been adapted twice; first as [[Easy Virtue (1928 film)|a silent film in 1928]], directed by [[Alfred Hitchcock]], and [[Easy Virtue (2008 film)|again in 2008]], directed by Stephan Elliot. The 2008 version is the best known, and starred Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, and Kristin Scott Thomas.

* [[Arranged Marriage]]: Sarah and John were supposed to marry, but John ran away and married Larita; she's a little annoyed, but not particularly torn up, and becomes friends with Larita. Marion is supposed to marry Edgar, who fled as soon as he could, and Veronica wants Hilda to marry Phillip, but he doesn't take the arrangement very seriously.

* [[Bratty Teenage Daughter]]: Hilda and Marion break into histrionics at the drop of a hat.

* [[Cool Big Sis]]: Larita tries to take on this role for Hilda, but accidentally causes her public humiliation.

* [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: When Larita joins in the fox hunt.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Several, but most notably Jim, Furber, and Larita herself.

* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: {{spoiler|Larita}} crosses this when {{spoiler|John flips out over the circumstances of her first husband's death}} and ends up hiding away, crying and incoherent.

* {{spoiler|[[Driven to Suicide]]: Larita's first husband had terminal cancer, and chose to kill himself rather than die slowly and painfully. Larita was charged with his murder and acquitted. This revelation is a huge scandal to the Whittakers; it gets worse when she later reveals she did kill him, at his request, because he was too feeble to do it himself.}}

* [[Genteel Interbellum Setting]]: A throwaway comment from Jim places the film in 1928, but a different one from Marion implies that it's 1922, so it's hard to say.

* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: No one is bad or good, despite how they may appear at first.

* [[Kick the Dog]]: The rare comedic version; Larita accidentally kills the family's chihuahua.

* [[Pretty in Mink]]: When Larita first arrived at the Whitaker house, she's wearing an ermine jacket. Later she dons a grey rabbit stole and muff. Veronica wears a mink stole in some scenes.

* [[She Cleans Up Nicely]]: Larita is already gorgeous, but when she does herself up for the party, she's spectacular. Sarah, similarly.

* [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]]: Jim went a little bit mad after the war, and "caroused around France and Italy" before pulling himself together and wandering home. {{spoiler|It's eventually revealed he never got over it; Veronica dragged him back to England to fulfil his familial duties.}}

* [[Unkempt Beauty]]: Colin Firth's character, which comes as quite a shock [[Pride and Prejudice|considering]] [[Love Actually|his]] [[Mamma Mia!|previous]] [[Bridget Jones|roles.]] [[Fetish Fuel|Not that anyone's complaining ...]]

* [[UpperclassUpper Class Twit]]: Played straight with Hilda, who is an utter ditz; subverted with Marion, {{spoiler|who is very aware that their family is rapidly running out of money.}}

** There's another one delivered by Larita to Veronica.

[[Category:PagesTheatrical needing more categoriesProductions]]