Easy Virtue

From Easy Virtue (2008 film).

Veronica: Smile, Marion.
Marion: I don't feel like smiling.
Jim: You're English, dear. Fake it.

Not long after World War One, the Whittaker family awaits the return of their only son John from the continent. To their dismay, he brings a bride; a glamourous American racecar driver. The bride, Larita, thinks she and John will visit and then move to London, where he'll work and she'll race. But John is the heir to the estate, and his mother, Veronica, is nothing if not a master manipulator. Soon it's all-out war between mother and bride. John's father, Colonel Jim Whittaker, finds himself in the bride's corner, along with the family servants; John's sisters, Hilda and Marion, side firmly with their mother, while their neighbours, the wealthy Hurst family, look on.

Easy Virtue was originally a play by Noel Coward, but has been adapted twice; first as a silent film in 1928, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and again in 2008, directed by Stephan Elliot. The 2008 version is the best known, and starred Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Colin Firth, and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Tropes used in Easy Virtue include:
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Hilda for Phillip. Phillip for Larita. Marion for Edgar, but only because her mother wants it.

John: Poor old Marion. Edgar drops by for a cup of sugar, and Mother has his name engraved on the family crypt.

  • Alcoholic Parent: Jim is rarely seen without a scotch in his hand.
  • Arranged Marriage: Sarah and John were supposed to marry, but John ran away and married Larita; she's a little annoyed, but not particularly torn up, and becomes friends with Larita. Marion is supposed to marry Edgar, who fled as soon as he could, and Veronica wants Hilda to marry Phillip, but he doesn't take the arrangement very seriously.
  • Betty and Veronica: To the audience, Larita is the Betty and Sarah Hurst is the Veronica; to the other characters, Sarah is the Betty and Larita is the Veronica. Subverted as, rather than competing, they actually form a very good friendship, and Sarah becomes one of Larita's closest allies and staunchest defenders within the house. Larita entrusts John to Sarah's care when she runs away with Jim. There's also a straight version, with John (Betty) and Phillip Hurst (Veronica) towards Larita. She married John before the story started, but it doesn't stop Phillip from trying.Neither of them get the girl.
  • Beneath the Mask: Every single character has put up a facade, with the possible exception of Phillip Hurst.
  • Big Screwed-Up Family
  • Bilingual Bonus: Larita and Jim are both fluent in French.
  • Bratty Teenage Daughter: Hilda and Marion break into histrionics at the drop of a hat.
  • Break the Cutie: Attempted by Veronica on Larita, with mixed success; Larita is just as stubborn as she is, but her efforts do take their toll.

Larita: Welcome to the petrified circus. Meet the resident contortionist who can't bend any further.

  • Broken Bird: Larita still grieves for her first husband. Veronica has been worn down by John's absence.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Subverted; Veronica calls her son out for shirking his responsibilities.
  • Conflicting Loyalty: John is torn between his family and his wife.

Larita: You threw me to the wolves in there.
John: Come now, Marion hardly constitutes wolves.
Larita: Alright, you threw me to the voles. Either way you abandoned me.

  • Cool Big Sis: Larita tries to take on this role for Hilda, but accidentally causes her public humiliation.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: When Larita joins in the fox hunt.
  • Dance of Romance: The tango at the Christmas party. Larita was trying to engineer one with John to repair their relationship, but when he turned her down Jim danced with her instead, and it ended up being a Dance of Romance for them.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Several, but most notably Jim, Furber, and Larita herself.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Larita crosses this when John flips out over the circumstances of her first husband's death and ends up hiding away, crying and incoherent.

Larita: You should have loved me more.
John: Larita, I couldn't love you any more.
{{[spoiler|Larita: You should have loved me better...}}

  • Did Not Do the Research: Fatty Arbuckle was never jailed...
  • Driven to Suicide: Larita's first husband had terminal cancer, and chose to kill himself rather than die slowly and painfully. Larita was charged with his murder and acquitted. This revelation is a huge scandal to the Whittakers; it gets worse when she later reveals she did kill him, at his request, because he was too feeble to do it himself.
  • Evil Matriarch: Larita thinks Veronica is this, but it turns out this is just what happens when you get on the wrong side of a Mama Bear.
  • Genteel Interbellum Setting: A throwaway comment from Jim places the film in 1928, but a different one from Marion implies that it's 1922, so it's hard to say.
  • Girl Next Door: Sarah Hurst, though somewhat subverted in that while she has affection for John, their marriage was arranged, and she's not particularly heartbroken when he marries Larita. It's implied they end up together anyway.

Sarah: You took the opportunity and married for love, and I respect you for it. If we'd've married, it would have been for friendship and convenience. We know each other far too well.

  • Grey and Gray Morality: No one is bad or good, despite how they may appear at first.
  • Hair of Gold: This is how Larita used to be; these days, she's very jaded.
  • Iron Lady: Veronica, again.
  • Kick the Dog: The rare comedic version; Larita accidentally kills the family's chihuahua.
  • Mama Bear: Veronica seems like a total bitch, but everything she does is actually in the best interests of her children and the estate.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Veronica, yet again, but she has her family's best interests in mind.

Sarah: (about Veronica) She's a lot like drowning. Quite pleasant, once you stop struggling.

  • My Beloved Smother: Veronica really wants John to divorce Larita and marry Sarah Hurst. It turns out this is because the family fortune is gone and they desperately need Sarah's dowry to get them back on their feet.
  • Old Maid: Larita. She and John like to tease eachother about the age difference; he jokingly refers to her as "grandma."
  • Pretty in Mink: When Larita first arrived at the Whitaker house, she's wearing an ermine jacket. Later she dons a grey rabbit stole and muff. Veronica wears a mink stole in some scenes.
  • Really Gets Around: Larita is accused of this, and it's implied there may be some truth to it--she does leave her husband for her father-in-law, after all.

Veronica: It is true you've had as many lovers as they say?
Larita: Of course it's not true, Mrs Whittaker. Hardly any of them actually loved me.

Larita: Have you been drinking, Furber?
Furber: Yes, madam. Prodigiously.

  • She Cleans Up Nicely: Larita is already gorgeous, but when she does herself up for the party, she's spectacular. Sarah, similarly.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Jim went a little bit mad after the war, and "caroused around France and Italy" before pulling himself together and wandering home. It's eventually revealed he never got over it; Veronica dragged him back to England to fulfil his familial duties.

Jim: She thought "wandering home" sounded better. And frankly I no longer cared.

Veronica: And you can get that ghastly painting out of my house. We do not need any more reminders of your easy virtue!

  • Unkempt Beauty: Colin Firth's character, which comes as quite a shock considering his previous roles. Not that anyone's complaining ...
  • Upper Class Wit: Phillip Hurst is well-dressed and charming, but totally foppish (and managed to injure himself by failing to get out of the way of a cow he tipped.) Jim Whittaker sits around drinking scotch and being sarcastic. They, and Sarah, are the only people who treat Larita with dignity and kindness by the end of the play.
  • Upper Class Twit: Played straight with Hilda, who is an utter ditz; subverted with Marion, who is very aware that their family is rapidly running out of money.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Phillip of all people delivers one to Hilda, after she utterly destroys Larita by making her first husband's suicide public knowledge.

Hilda: You've got me all to yourself. Larita's upstairs with a headache.
Phillip: And which little fool gave her that?

    • There's another one delivered by Larita to Veronica.
  • The White Prince: He's not a prince, just an heir, but otherwise John fits this very well--he's sweet and charming, but very naive. He gets a little tarnished once he realises exactly how deeply in trouble his family is, and loses the shine altogether when Larita's backstory is revealed.
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