Easy Virtue

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: Set in the UK in the 1920s, the prodigal son (Ben Barnes) of a rich family returns home with an older woman (Jessica Biel), whom he's already married, and who is American. And so his mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) sets to breaking them apart.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth, Kimberley Nixon, Katherine Parkinson, Kris Marshall, Charlotte Riley, Christian Brassington, Pip Torrens

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. Based on a Noel Coward play, the fast paced farcical tone gets off to a good start, but about 20 minutes in, you realize that this movie has no plot, and the story element that would've made the catty goings-on more interesting is not revealed until 20 minutes before the end.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: The dialogue is quick witted, but you might want to brush up on your proper English listening comprehension skills, because in some parts it is so fast and thrown away that you completely miss what they're saying.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: Maybe, if you've ever had in-laws. But probably not.

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: Can you imagine how insulted Kristin Scott Thomas must have been when she found out she was going to be acting up against 7th Heaven's Jessica Biel? Apparently she put all that anger into this role, and it served her well because she has already won a couple of acting awards in Great Britain for this film.

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Jessica Biel is pretty, but she's completely miscast as the older woman. Not only does she not appear to be older than her husband, but in real life, she's several months younger than Ben Barnes. The whole movie would have made a lot more sense if they had gotten Charlize Theron or Angelina Jolie. Another reason those actresses would've been more impactful, is that they wouldn't look so ridiculous trying to act next to top tier professionals like Kristin Scott Thomas and Colin Firth. On a positive note, I'd like to ask you all to look out for Kimberley Nixon, a fairly newcomer, who really does hold her own next to these old pros. I see a big career in her future.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Even though it is an adaptation of a play, and takes place primarily all on one giant estate, it never feels too small or boxed in to be a movie.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: The script, on the other hand, does not escape the play-to-movie transition unscathed. A play and a movie don't have the same format. In a play, the audience is more patient, and you can leave certain key plot points and underlying emotional motivations until the end. But in a movie format, the audience is accustomed to knowing why a character is being unreasonably cruel much earlier, so that they can feel deeply for both the villain and the victim, and experience the moral dilemma of choosing sides. If the screenwriters had introduced the pivotal plot piece twenty minutes into the film instead of twenty minutes from the end, they might have had a movie. But as it sits now, they have a very cinematic play.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/search/easy%20virtue/trailers

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Doubt

Q: What’s the movie about?

A: A nun (Meryl Streep) tries to take down a priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who she believes has seduced one of the children.

Q: Who’s in the movie?

A: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Joseph Foster

Q: Is this movie worth the price of admission?

A: Proceed with Caution. While they manage to avoid making any outrightly disparaging remarks about sex and the clergy, by keeping the battle between two of its committed members (a priest and a nun), the ultimate conclusion that the story comes to feels more intellectual than emotional, and for that, the movie ends up feeling less important than it should.  On the other hand, for those interested in an exercise in thinking, rather than feeling, you may have fodder, as many of the sermons are interesting, and the clergy makes for a perfect setting within which to explore themes of faith versus doubt.

Q: Will this movie make me laugh?

A: This movie is so totally devoid of humor that it's hard to believe it comes from the writer of Moonstruck and the producer of Clueless.

Q: Will this movie make me cry?

A: It's too heady to incite those emotions, but when Viola Davis cries her nose runs and she licks it up. Eiw. Was there no one on set to give this woman a tissue?!

Q: Will this movie be up for any awards?

A: All Meryl Streep has to do to get an Academy Award nomination is be in a movie. But if she has to get one this year, it would be more original to see her get it for Mamma Mia!

Q: How is the Acting?

A: Watching such pros as Streep and Hoffman battle it out in scene after scene is a true pleasure to anyone who appreciates fine acting. Their performances, as well as Amy Adams'-- who's always delightful--, are the number one reason to see this film.

Q: How is the Directing?

A: Shanley opens it up a little from the staged version, but it still feels like a play. That said, if you like theater, you will probably like this play. On the other hand, any good theater aficionado should have already seen it.

Q: How is the story/script?

A: When I was an acting student at UCLA, I remember always wanting to do scenes from such John Patrick Shanley plays as Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and Women of Manhattan. I also remember then sitting down to read the entirety of his plays and never finding them to be as  moving as the individual scenes within them. That is also true of this movie, where there is a plethora of highly intense, dramatic, and well thought-out scenes interwoven into a story that amounts to not very much.  

Q: Is there anything else worth mentioning about the movie?

A: Before seeing this movie, I had never stopped to think about how severely sexism is woven into the church. In the hierarchy, Mother Superior is the highest ranking for a woman, which is below Priest-- the lowest ranking for a man. How can women ever gain equality in a world where the primary religion suppresses their rights to it completely? I'm just saying.

Q: Where can I see the trailer?

A: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/doubt/29875/trailers

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