The disc: "Easy Virtue"
The details: "Easy Virtue" never has been regarded as one of Noel Coward's best plays, uneasily divided as it is between blithe manor house comedy and bursts of melodrama. It even provided Alfred Hitchcock with an opportunity to stub his toe in 1927, and until this year nobody else was interested in getting close to it.
But Stephan Elliott's ("The Adventures of Priscilla," "Queen of the Desert") new film works quite well, even if it never manages the impossible trick of reconciling the script's opposing sensibilities.
In broad outline, it's about Larita (Jessica Biel), a feminist from Detroit who has just married an upper-class not-quite twit and come home to his family in Dorset, England. They're a dreary bunch, led by Kristin Scott-Thomas' low fury at her husband's (Colin Firth) long-standing depression over what he witnessed in World War I. They're also going broke.
Added into the mix are an annoying little dog, a bored butler who loathes his employers and demonstrates it by hilariously stealing every scene he's in, and a musical score evenly divided between Coward and Cole Porter. The house is appropriately gloomy, and Biel, in a succession of glimmering gowns, is appropriately gorgeous in Blu-ray. Overall, surprisingly satisfying.
The extras include a couple of deleted scenes, a blooper reel, and a commentary track with the director and screenwriter.
Scott Eyman writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: scott(underscore)eyman(at)pbpost.com.