3 ½ out of 5.

            Jessica Biel takes her shot at respectability – not by actually going on stage and doing a play, but by doing a movie based on a classic play.  And she pulls it off.

            It’s probably a back-handed compliment, but that’s the biggest surprise in Easy Virtue.  Biel’s never been a bad actress, but her work would probably not be described as highfalutin’.  She’s not who you’d expect in a comedy set in 1920s England, based on a play by Noel Coward and starring actors of the caliber of Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth  (yes, Jamie Foxx won an Oscar, but he didn’t do it for his work opposite Biel in Stealth).

            Biel plays Larita, an urbane American race car driver who marries a young man from a stuffy, upper class British family.  They’re probably about the same age – but her husband is really still a boy and Larita seems to have life experience beyond her years.  The couple move into his family’s estate, where her American urban ways clash with his upper crust family’s lifestyle.  Larita’s willing to socialize with the help, to get her hands dirty and fix a motorcycle, and would never in a million years think of joining a fox hunt.

            It sounds like the plot of any sitcom where a fish out of water character clashes with some kind of aristocrat.  But this was a 1924 comedy of manners, so it gets credit for coming first.  Writer/director Stephan Elliott never lets it become like a sitcom – even if you never knew it was a play, it still feels like one.  And as a comedic leading lady, Jessica Biel nails it.  She’s beautiful, funny and always the center of attention. 

            It is a little disheartening to see a Hollywood cliché come true.  Thomas is not that far removed from her days as a romantic leading lady (The English Patient, The Horse Whisperer), but she’s reached a certain age – so here she is playing the old crone mother.  Meanwhile, Colin Firth, who’s about the same age, plays the patriarch as a cool cucumber with a feel for what’s really going on with Larita.  He’s a veteran and knows there’s more to the world than the closed-off life at his loveless estate.  If the plot allowed it, he could easily slide into the role of the leading man.  He’s also the second best part in the movie.

            For an added bit of fun, listen closely to the soundtrack.  It’s a combination of the music of the day with some reworked versions of music of the somewhat recent past.  Billy Ocean of all people makes an appearance on the soundtrack.