easy virtue

the wife and i have been going through a bit of a 'period piece' phase in our movie watching, and i've got to say, i rather enjoy it. many of the films we have been watching are set in a victorian sort of era where everyone is a bit stuffy and cant really speak their mind. this film starts off just like that. it follows a man and woman who get married and he brings her home to meet the very british, very stuffy family. she is, of course, a coarse american who does speak her mind, which leads to many many problems. the mother is all pomp and circumstance, and the father is shut off from the world because he has to suffer all that pomp. as the movie unfolds we see the happily married young couple become not so happy. he is beginning to realize that if he wants to stay with her he will have to give up his britishness. jessica biel plays the young american very well, willing to meet the family, but not willing to become what they want her to. as it plays out we learn a lot about the family and why they are the way they are, and the marriage between them must become something else or it must be broken. the acting is great and the sets are fantastic as we watch the family and marriage crumble amidst the grand emptiness. while all this decay is starting to show, the film still keeps a sense of lightness to it.