Easy Virtue | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Stephan Elliott |
Produced by |
Barnaby Thompson Joseph Abrams James D. Stern |
Written by | Stephan Elliott Sheridan Jobbins |
Based on |
Easy Virtue by Noël Coward |
Starring |
Jessica Biel Colin Firth Kristin Scott Thomas Ben Barnes |
Music by | Marius de Vries |
Cinematography | Martin Kenzie |
Edited by | Sue Blainey |
Production
company |
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Distributed by |
Ealing Studios Pathé |
Release date
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Running time
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97 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English French |
Box office | $US18,463,793 |
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, impetuously marries a young Englishman, John Whittaker, in the South of France. When they return to England to meet his parents, his mother takes an immediate and strong dislike to the new daughter-in-law, while his father, Jim, 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. In May 2009 it was released in the US.
In the United States, the film enjoyed some commercial success. Sony Pictures Classics paid an estimated $US1 million to acquire the film's distribution rights in the United States, Latin America and South Africa. The film went on to gross $US2.5 million in limited theatrical release in the United States.