Easy Virtue (DVD, 2009)

This is a silly movie that wastes the talent of screen luminaries such as Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth in what amounts to a shallow tale of mistaken love. Jessica Biel is gorgeous as Larita Whittaker, an adventurous race car driver. For some reason she has whirlwind romance and marriage to John Whittaker, a young bon vivant jaunting on the Continent. Needless to say John's family, headed by Thomas as his mother together with his 2 spinster sisters, are none to happy with his choice of bride. The fact that his marriage to Larita eliminates the possibility of the advantageouos union with the next door Sarah (including her land and properties) makes the presence of the flashy Larita intolerable to Thomas. In the end (leaving out a couple of surprise details that really don't shock), it is left to Larita to understand her motives for marrying the young John and to extract herself so that all may be right again in the tweedy world from which John came. Firth is wonderful as the jaded husband, torn from the opium dens of post-WWI Europe and brought back to life and civilization by his prim wife, Thomas. Especially nice turn by Kris Marshall as the household butler, Furber. His admission to being an ex-con (his crime is the darkly humorous part) is a highlight so watch for it!