BuzzSugar

Easy Virtue: Sparkling Cast Can't Help the Center Star

BuzzSugar — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:30:30 -0700

Easy Virtue, a film adaptation of Noel Coward's jazzy 1920s-set play, pits the old traditions of Europe's landowning gentry against the brash modernity that America had come to symbolize. The old guard is represented by a wealthy British family led by the brittle matriarch Mrs. Whittaker (Kristin Scott Thomas). When her son, John Whittaker (Ben Barnes), marries a sexy race car driver named Larita (Jessica Biel) several years his elder, the entire family is thrown into a tizzy.

Once Biel's character arrives at the Whittaker home she's meant to represent a vibrant and mesmerizing new way of doing things that is utterly offensive to this family so steeped in tradition. But alas, Ms. Biel doesn't quite have what it takes to hold down the center of a film like this and the whole endeavor suffers. To see why, read more.

The cast includes the kind of immensely talented actors who can take on the old-fashioned, quick and witty dialogue with one hand tied behind their backs. Biel tries to keep up and at times she succeeds, but most of the time she simply appears to be swimming upstream. As you might expect, Kristin Scott Thomas deliciously inhabits her icy character with ease and delivers each line as a stinging backhanded compliment. Colin Firth plays her long-suffering husband still hurting from memories of war, and delivers an incredibly funny yet soulful performance. Even Ben Barnes, who is handsome but stiff in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, displays pizzazz as the prodigal son returning home.

As the movie clicks along, though, more and more is asked of Biel as she navigates the cruel and ruthless landmines set out for her by her new mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, and she's not quite able to rise to the occasion. As the tone shifts in the final act from a comedy of manners to a darker drama, the talented ensemble cast does all it can to prop the movie up, but the center can't hold in the end.

Photos courtesy of Sony Picture Classics

Buzz News Roundup, 1/12

BuzzSugar — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:30:48 -0800

Hilary Duff is set to star as a young lawyer in the NBC sitcom Barely Legal. - The Hollywood Reporter
French actor, director, and producer Claude Berri has died at age 74. - AP
Kristin Scott Thomas has signed on to play John Lennon's aunt, Mimi Smith, in the movie Nowhere Boy. - Zap2It
Flight of the Conchords fans will now be able to purchase music from each episode the day after it airs. - The Hollywood Reporter
Brendan Fraser will join Harrison Ford in the drama Crowley. - ComingSoon
The Art Directors Guild has announced the nominations for its 2008 Excellence in Production Design Awards, including everything from Changeling and Iron Man to 30 Rock and Weeds. - Variety
Shiri Appleby will play a mom on the CW's hourlong pilot Light Years. - Zap2It

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Robert Pattinson's Next Leading Lady Is Uma Thurman

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:25:01 -0800

New Moon hits the theaters today, and with it comes even more news about the future of Robert Pattinson's career: Uma Thurman has signed on to star opposite the heartthrob in the upcoming Bel Ami. Pattinson is George Duroy, a poor journalist who sleeps his way to the top in Paris, and Thurman will play the woman who eventually becomes his wife. Kristin Scott Thomas has also just signed on for the film.

Nicole Kidman's name was originally attached to the project, and I have to admit that I would have preferred to see her playing opposite Pattinson. Still, it should be interesting (to say the least) to see him in the arms of an older woman. Many of you aren't digging Pattinson's Remember Me costar Emilie de Ravin (check out the trailer here), but are you more intrigued to see him alongside one of Hollywood's seasoned veterans?