Tedious ‘Virtue’ not easy to endure
Such a pleasant surprise in the underrated I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, Jessica Biel is a delight as Larita, Easy Virtue’s plucky hero. An American race-car driver with an early feminist worldview, she is just remarried to the young John Whittaker, and arrives to meet his disapproving British family for an extended stay at their country estate. Convincingly making her way along an increasingly isolating journey, Biel has a formidable foe in the reliably magnificent Kristin Scott Thomas, but the deck is stacked in favor of Larita’s admirable self-purpose, and the traditionalism of her in-laws is portrayed with disdain and no sense of empathy.
As Mrs. Whittaker, Scott Thomas has a line of dialogue that briefly suggests Director Stephen Elliott might be equally interested in what motivates this hardened matriarch, but that angle ultimately goes nowhere. As John, dopey Ben Barnes is no match for these headliners, who hold their own in an otherwise forgettable adaptation of Noël Coward’s play. Inoffensive and dull when it so clearly strives for outrageous and lively, Elliott maintains Coward’s melodramatic tone while awkwardly molding it into a close-quarters comedy. The result is almost mournfully respectful of its source; there are a few spirited bursts of good humor, but they are like infrequent landmarks along a highway of ennui.
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