MovieChat Forums > Easy Virtue (2009) Discussion > GREAT MOVIE!

GREAT MOVIE!

posted 16 years ago by megaheartx
5 replies | jump to latest

Except for Jessica Biel.

She was awful. Would it really have been that hard to get a decent actress for the role?

Oscars 2010: Meryl Streep for Best Actress in Julie & Julia

[–] oneseat 16 years ago

Why do you say this?

She was actually better than I thought she would be. I believed the way she did Larita's impatience and restlessness. I believed her school-of-hard-knocks flintiness.

Okay, I don't believe someone like her would truly fall in love with a callow youth like John, but that's the script's fault, not hers. Also the script's fault was the embarrassingly phony tango scene.

I think you may be blaming her for things that aren't her fault.

[–] sjoyd24 16 years ago

Oneseat, you miss the point, John is supposed to be a callow youth and she loved his innocence. Larita's big mistake was marrying him. In the bedroom before she goes down to the party Jim asks her why she married the boy.

The Tango was terribly risky and certainly not acceptable in the country houses of the gentry in the 1920's and Larita asking the band to play it and asking John to dance it was very bad form. The fact that Jim took up the challenge was a way for him to show the others in the room what he thought of them and to support Larita. Jim is not a professional dancer and the dance scene was meant to reflect this - he is a man around 50 years of age doing the best he can and his wife and guests certainly get his message.

[–] barbara511 16 years ago

Biel's line delivery was technically correct at best; very unemotional. I could not believe any of her character's motives...It is true though that the script did not help either. Rather schizophrenic...As if the writer could not decide if he wanted to make a comedy, a drama, a romance, or something entirely different...
I loved the sets, the costumes, the music...the rest was confused. It departed vastly from the original intent of the play.

[–] hdcom8 16 years ago

Renne Zieweger was originally cast as Larita. She dropped out at the last minute and Jessica Biel was cast.

I think Biel's performance was fresh and exciting. I think a lot of people don't like Biel personally and can't detach themselves from that when they watch a film of hers. It would have been a different film with Renne.

Not that it matters, but remember that this film was shot in 6 weeks (films normally have 12) with no rehearsal time. Every other actor in the film is a seasoned professional with a theatrical background and training. Biel had 7th Heaven and Blade. Many big Hollywood films (the type that Biel is used to) can some times take days to shoot a single scene, Whereas each scene in this was done in a matter of hours.

Biel's performance is nothing short of a triumph that should at least get her an oscar nomination.

[–] INeedUnguent 16 years ago

I saw this film today, and was pleasantly surprised. I'm not a huge fan of Noel Coward...too dated, too upper crust and esoteric. I expected it to be mildly amusing but uninvolving. However, I came away being moved and amused and even had some laugh out loud moments...not over the top though. I thought the way they updated the story was clever and appropriate, and I thought Biel held her own agaist a formidable cast of pros. She was a nice surprise. The film was much better than I expected it to be.