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EASY VIRTUEMovie Reviews
Comedy of manners based on the Noel Coward play about an American woman and an Englishman who get swept up in a frantic romance in the South of France. Cast:Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, Kimberley Nixon, Kris MarshallDirector:Stephan ElliottRelease Date:May 22, 2009DVD Release:September 15, 2009From:Sony ClassicsRating:PG-13Length:1 hr 37 min
Easy Virtue played in key cities to good reviews that at the same time were mixed. • Tricia Olszewski wrote in the Washington City Paper, "...a delight. And, with Jessica Biel starring as a 1929 sophisticate, a surprise." • And Connie Ogle wrote in the Miami Herald, "...would seem surefire entertainment... the film is anything but light on its feet. It lumbers instead of dazzles, drags where it should feint and jab." More Reviews Below...
Leah Rozen, People: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "Biel works hard but the effort shows, while Scott Thomas and Firth (as Biel's boozy sympathetic father-in-law) sail along, earning laughs with the simplest of gestures..."(See all of Leah Rozen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 128 words, 05/21/09
Mary Pols, Time: GOOD "Biel is more than just a pretty face.... The film itself is less of a revelation, a revisiting of familiar types and scenarios that are nicely executed but not exactly relevant..."(See all of Mary Pols's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 747 words, 05/22/09
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD(cg) "Jessica Biel in a teacup-rattling '20s period piece?... With her lewd pinup grin and husky flat voice, she sticks out like a sore starlet... but that's the whole point..."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 120 words, 05/29/09
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: MODERATE(cg) "Biel's performance strengthens as her role turns heavier and less slapsticky, as the secrets of her character's past are revealed. But the road there isn't easy."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 516 words, 05/21/09
Thelma Adams, Us Weekly: VERY GOOD(cg) "While the film drips wit, and the scene in which the bride sits on the matriarch's pet is priceless, the lightning-fast dialogue occasionally trips up Biel."(See all of Thelma Adams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 68 words, 05/21/09
Claudia Puig, USA Today: VERY GOOD(cg) "Biel has the requisite charm and verve... Firth is excellent... Thomas plays the imperious and narrow-minded matriarch to perfection."(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 382 words, 05/22/09
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Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: MODERATE(cg) "We could all use a little more Noel Coward in our lives. But the fizz falls flat in Stephan Elliot's adaptation of a lesser-known play... it has little spirit to speak of."(See all of Elizabeth Weitzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 351 words, 05/22/09
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...the dialogue has an edgy wit... Here is the 'Odd Couple' formula applied in a specific time and place that make them feel very odd indeed."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 549 words, 05/28/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "There are probably no better hands to entrust virtue of any sort to than those of writer-director Stephan Elliott... it is very good to have Mr. Elliott back."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 658 words, 05/22/09
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: WEAK(cg) "...a crass, heavy- handed and -- most unforgivably -- largely laugh-free adaptation of The Master's infrequently revived 1924 comic melodrama."(See all of Lou Lumenick's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 393 words, 05/22/09
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: WEAK(cg) "The style should suggest 'whipped cream with knives,' as Stephen Sondheim once described 'A Little Night Music.' Elliott's film is more like curdled milk with a spork."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 469 words, 05/29/09
Liam Lacey, Toronto Globe & Mail: MODERATE(cg) "...has enough traces of Coward's wit to keep you hoping for the first hour or so, but then the film collapses under the weight of too many misguided innovations."(See all of Liam Lacey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 594 words, 05/29/09
Ella Taylor, Village Voice/LA Weekly: OUTSTANDING "...deliciously cheeky screen adaptation of one of the satirist's lesser-known jabs at the British upper crust will charm your pants off."(See all of Ella Taylor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 250 words, 05/20/09
Deirdre Swain, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...the whole thing's an anachronism.... the uptight Brit/swinging Yank comparison no longer holds water.... it's lovely to watch and great to listen to, but ultimately empty."(See all of Deirdre Swain's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 207 words, 05/28/09
KEY CITIES (13 Reviews)
Dan Zak, Washington Post: WEAK(cg) "...cut from the same drawing-room drapery as 'Gosford Park' and any Oscar Wilde film adaptation, minus the thematic heft and belly laughs of either."(See all of Dan Zak's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 712 words, 06/05/09
Mick LaSalle, Houston Chronicle: VERY GOOD(cg) "Despite its director's little lapses in tone and judgment, 'Easy Virtue' gets better as it goes along. So does Biel, though it might not be anything she herself does."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 700 words, 06/05/09
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: VERY GOOD(cg) "Biel's most ambitious role, and she makes the most of it, holding her own in a British comedy of manners against the likes of Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth."(See all of Bill Goodykoontz's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 462 words, 06/05/09
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: MODERATE(cg) "Full of forced jocularity and drawing-room hissy fits, with its cast parading around in vintage threads and antique cars... a close-to-insufferable souffle..."(See all of Steven Rea's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 319 words, 06/05/09
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: MODERATE(cg) "...based on a 1925 Noel Coward play... those coming in cold may be forgiven for thinking they've wandered into 'Atonement' remade as a farce."(See all of Ty Burr's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 607 words, 05/29/09
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: VERY GOOD(cg) "...keeps the spirit of Coward while energetically reworking the story with headlong energy and contemporary touches that would fit neatly in a 'Meet the Parents' spinoff."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 333 words, 06/05/09
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a bouncy adaptation of a Noel Coward play about a glamorous American (Jessica Biel) who marries a young Brit (Ben Barnes), but quickly finds that she doesn't fit in..."(See all of Moira Macdonald's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 367 words, 06/19/09
Clint O'Connor, Cleveland Plain-Dealer: VERY GOOD(cg) "The acting is splendid, although with such all-stars as Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth in the house, Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes really seem more like the JV squad."(See all of Clint O'Connor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 330 words, 06/12/09
Marc Mohan, Portland Oregonian: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "This may have been fertile grounds for satire in 1925, when Noel Coward's drawing-room melodrama debuted on the stage, but by now this film version feels rather done."(See all of Marc Mohan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 213 words, 06/19/09
Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...has all the elements for a sprightly romp with serious underpinnings, and occasionally it achieves that balance."(See all of Calvin Wilson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 321 words, 06/12/09
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: EXCELLENT(cg) "The open warfare between the women -- with the self-assured Biel holding her own with the always-flinty Thomas -- is the fun of 'Easy Virtue.' "(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 434 words, 06/12/09
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: MODERATE(cg) "...would seem surefire entertainment... the film is anything but light on its feet. It lumbers instead of dazzles, drags where it should feint and jab."(See all of Connie Ogle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 369 words, 06/05/09
Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun: MODERATE(cg) "The movie's go-for-broke pratfalls undercut the comic gravity behind Coward's puncturing of a hypocritical world based on inherited wealth and values."(See all of Michael Sragow's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 425 words, 06/19/09
ALTERNATIVE/INDIE PRESS (7 Reviews)
Ella Taylor, Village Voice/LA Weekly: OUTSTANDING "...deliciously cheeky screen adaptation of one of the satirist's lesser-known jabs at the British upper crust will charm your pants off."(See all of Ella Taylor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 250 words, 05/20/09
Deirdre Swain, Toronto Now: WEAK(cg) "...the whole thing's an anachronism.... the uptight Brit/swinging Yank comparison no longer holds water.... it's lovely to watch and great to listen to, but ultimately empty."(See all of Deirdre Swain's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 207 words, 05/28/09
Bob Mondello, NPR All Things Considered: MODERATE "...the director treats the story throughout as the melodrama it always was underneath -- the tale of a hypocritical family and a lady with a past..."(See all of Bob Mondello's reviews...)(Listen to the full review...) 229 seconds, 05/23/09
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "There are probably no better hands to entrust virtue of any sort to than those of writer-director Stephan Elliott... it is very good to have Mr. Elliott back."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 658 words, 05/22/09
MOVIE INDUSTRY (4 Reviews)
Todd McCarthy, Daily Variety: EXCELLENT "A fine cast makes sure Noel Coward's champagne remains bubbly... an effervescent entertainment that marks a welcome return for director Stephan Elliott..."(See all of Todd McCarthy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 924 words, 09/12/08
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: OUTSTANDING "...catches the spirit of Coward's attack on Victorian repression and hypocrisy masquerading as moral virtue.... a visual and verbal treat..."(See all of Kirk Honeycutt's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 755 words, 09/09/08
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "There are probably no better hands to entrust virtue of any sort to than those of writer-director Stephan Elliott... it is very good to have Mr. Elliott back."(See all of Betsy Sharkey's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 658 words, 05/22/09
21.7 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Easy Virtue's reviews are separated by an average 21.7 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Easy Virtue (37 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Easy Virtue's reviews cover 79.6% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 15,775 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 426 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Reviews Broke 37.5 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Easy Virtue's reviews on average broke 37.5 hours after opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Easy Virtue's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Easy Virtue (37 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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