Bridesmaids: 2 minute movie review

Two words: totally hilarious.

I won't say too much because there's already been so much written about how great and truly funny this movie is, and how supremely hilarious Kristen Wiig is in it. Suffice to say: it's about time! Women are funny and this totally proves it (as if Tina Fey hadn't already done that) - they just need a good vehicle.

I read an article about how the time for women's gross-out comedy had finally arrived, and how previous punters like Cameron Diaz's The Sweetest Thing were just ahead of the market, but I say pooh pooh. That movie was just plain crap with a terrible script and cliched storyline. This one is just flat out funny with no dull bits.

If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend it.

The Case of the Missing Books, Ian Sansom: book review

The Case of the Missing Books is the first of a comedy/mystery series involving reluctant hero Israel Armstrong: a chubby, bumbling, Jewish, not-entirely-inept librarian.

The plot begins when Israel lands in the middle of nowhere, Tumdrum Ireland, having accepted a librarian position only to discover that it's for a mobile library (apparently the bottom rung of libraridom). To add insult to injury, he's forced to live in a barely-converted chicken coop with a quirky family of brother, sister and their grandfather, he doesn't have enough money to return home without receiving his first paycheck, and all the library books have gone missing and the council won't let him out of his contract until he finds them.

I was led by the back cover and many reviews to believe that it's a funny and delightful book, but as much as I wanted to like it, it just wasn't the hilarious comic caper I'd hoped for.

The characters are drawn a little too hard like "quirky locals" and they end up as single dimensions of a big farce, like the overweight Linda Wei who constantly crams junk food in her mouth at every opportunity and punctures her scenes by passing gas.

It's gentle humour that attempts to please, but ultimately failed to engage this reader.

Reviewed as part of the Great Library Challenge, author S.

The Family Man, Elinor Lipman

The Family Man is funny and charming and witty and sweet. What I love about Elinor Lipman is that her stories don't need to be dramatised or heightened to be interesting, and she doesn't dumb down the narrative for mass appeal. Her writing is just gorgeous, like dipping a big red luscious strawberry into melted Belgian chocolate and letting it set.

At the core of the story is Henry, a single recently-retired divorcee, who has since come to terms with his homosexuality. The catalyst is the funeral of his ex-wife's third husband, which in a roundabout way re-connects Henry with his long-lost but still beloved stepdaughter Thalia, embroiling him in her media-spun romance with a horror director, and the arrival of a new love interest. Sound convoluted? You'd think so, but it's not. Lipman makes everything sound like a natural string of events.

She's often compared to Jane Austen in a lot of her reviews: my two cents worth is that the similarities in the two authors are their wonderful wit, insight into human behaviour and gently mocking social commentary. Austen is a sparklier writer though - her dialogue zings, while Lipman shines more when it comes to internal monologue.

I closed the last page on this book with some wistfulness. I would've loved for it to last longer - I needed this dose of literary medication after reading the last dud.

Boy is kiwi magic

Boy is a charming Kiwi film about 11 year old Boy growing up in Waihau Bay, New Zealand. Boy and his younger brother Rocky live with their grandmother, since their father has been jailed and their mother died during childbirth. He loves Michael Jackson, dreams of his heroic father, and drools over local pretty girl Chardonnay.

Boy's life takes a turn when his father, played by actor and director Taika Waititi, shows up with his Crazy Horse gang (two fairly incompetent friends) to find his buried cash. A humorous and heartwarming film, Boy's best assets are the beautifully understated performances of the two main kid actors, James Rolleston (Boy) and Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu (Rocky).

The script is full of humour, mostly quirky with an occasional broad streak, and the drama is downplayed. The Kiwis, like the British, have a hard time expressing their emotions, but they don't disguise it with a stuff upper lip. Instead you get great human moments of raw awkwardness that are touching and warm.

My only criticism would be that perhaps the story is too underplayed, which could potentially leave a lack of emotional connection. The single crux of the film is that Boy's dreams of his father are crumbled when he sees his fallibility (hilariously portrayed in Michael Jackon-esque scenes), but it's a slow journey and the climax lacks the oomph that we expect in great cinema. However, on the whole, Boy is a lovely film and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What tickles my funny bone

Engrish mistakes really tickle my funny bone. I love these real-life marketing slogans that got totally lost in translation:

Pepsi slogan: Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation
Taiwanese: "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead."

KFC: Finger Lickin' Good
Chinese: "Eat your fingers off."

Electrolux: something in Swedish
English: "Nothing sucks like Electrolux."

A cafe sign in Chinese: Welcome foreigners
In English: Welcome big nose friends

Speaking of things that make me laugh, these are a few websites I love to visit for a dose of serotonin:

Crazy Things Parents Say

Examples:

My Grandma on hooking a bowling ball on Wii Bowling:
Grandma: "I’ve always been a hooker. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a hooker."
Grandpa: "You know, when I met your grandma, she was a hooker."

Mom: “Okay, go get the electric broom and sweep in here.”
Me: “Electric broom? We have an electric broom?”
Mom: “Yes.”
Me: “And where is it?”
Mom: “Right there.”
Me: “…that’s a vacuum, Mom.”
Mom: “…be quiet and get to work.”

My mom when my dad sent her a two page long text message:
“One of Two? Two of Two? What is he trying to say? Is it a secret code?” 

Clients from hell:

 Examples:

Client: A contact has a friend thats tight with Google so he’ll get us to the top ranking.
Me: I don’t think it works like that.
Client: Don’t worry, we have it covered. My friend’s friend is tight with that Zakenburger kid from Myspace.

Client: “We don’t want people to think that everyone using our service is black. Can you make most of the people white?”
Me: “They are stick figures, I don’t think there’s going to be any racial profiling.”
Client: “Well you’re using black lines for all of them. We want to see most of them as white.”
Me: “Don’t you think that would look even more racist? Besides, it’s a white background, the white stick figures would disappear.”
Client: “Then change it to a black background and make the black people disappear. I don’t know, just figure it out.”

Client: ”I love the job you did! Thanks so much!”
Me: ”Great! Best of luck with it! I sent you the invoice. We did more than what we had agreed to and did not charge you for it.”
Client: ”Yes, and as soon as I get your expenses, I will pay you.”
Me: ”What do you mean by our expenses?”
Client: ”Well, I need to get what you paid for materials, etc. so I know if what you are charging me is fair.”
Me: ”But we agreed to a price and you agreed to it and thought it was fair, we delivered more than the price we agreed to and you love it? I’m not going to give you what we paid for materials, printing, etc? When you go to a restaurant and order a meal and eat it, do you ask for the price of the lobster and ingredients when the bill comes before you’ll pay?”
Client: ”What I do or do not do in restaurants is not relevant. First of all, I never order lobster. Second, you don’t understand how business works. You really need to understand business better. I won’t pay until I see what your costs were.”

Apart from these ones, I also love the fail blog, occasionally check in on Wedinator (hilarious wedding photos - see above) and Probably Bad News. Got a better site I should be checking out?

Loving Mean Cards

I'm loving these mean cards - they're hilarious, and the stick figures render them impossible to offend.

Inside: my patience for your condition is beginning to wane

Inside: you best maintain our friendship

Inside: it doesn't love you back (there's just no app for that)

 Inside: you know why.

 Inside: ask around

 Inside: refrain, and seek instruction

It brings to mind the episode from Seinfeld where Kramer throws up on Susan and there's a suggestion of cards for awkward situations like 'Sorry I threw up on you'.

The mean cards artist also has a great blog called stories of daily peril filled with her wonderfully winsome stick images.

What mean cards or awkward-situation cards would you think up? My suggestions: 

(outside): you annoy me

(inside): but I find you oddly endearing

(outside): you make me sick

(inside): you're too talented for your own good

(outside): stop chucking sickies

(inside): they make mine look suspicious too

Niemann and three-thirty-itis

Note to self: WAKE UP!!!!

Great cartoon by NY Times artist Christopher Niemann

I know it's not just me - lots of us get that drowsy mid-afternoon sensation. Head nodding. Bobbing. Closer and closer to the desk, the shoulder of the person next to us, to whatever surface will pillow our suddenly boulder-weight head. In the words of that iconic Victoria Bitter ad: 'As a matter of fact, I've got it now.'

How much do you love that Niemann cartoon? Here's another one that I think sums up love in a very cold place:

He says:

Winter is coming, and slipping into a cold bed is tough. But believe it or not, sometimes when I go to bed before my wife does, I will offer her the half that I have just warmed up.

I obviously love her very, very much.

I can't say my husband has ever done that for me (nor I for him!) but we've certainly been here:

Who hasn't right?

To see more of his cartoons, check out his blog Abstract City on the NY Times website. To see the whole gorgeous story from which I've borrowed these images, check it out this particularly charming post.

Kick-Ass, movie review

I should not be this giddy about a film so chock full of extreme violence and an 11-year old girl with a potty mouth. I should not, by rights, be so enamoured with this film about a teen geek superhero-wannabe who wears a wetsuit to save the neighbourhood. But I LOVED it. Enough to see it twice in the opening weekend. It, quite simply, kicked ass.

The script is funny, clever and very current. It's full of one-liners and hilarious teen moments that pepper the film and balance the violence and mayhem that escalate as the story goes on. The action, although violent, is never particularly realistic enough to be disturbing. It's stylised in the brand of Hong Kong super-director John Woo (it bugs me the number of reviews that refer to it as 'Tarantino-esque' – Woo is the original), and brings to mind the early movies starring Chow Yun Fat. But the graceful balletic violence is transferred to a comic book setting, which works brilliantly, and delivers most of its lethal blows through an 11 year old girl. This move has seen some major controversy in the media lately. Considering my belief system (Christian, and usually predictably conservative), I should've been joining in the ranks of the outraged, but frankly this movie got me from the premise and delivered everything it promised. It's become one of my favourite movies of the last few years at the very least.

In a short summary (no spoilers), the story is about a teen geek, Dave Lizewski (played by British Aaron Johnson) who wonders aloud why noone's tried being a superhero in real life. Armed with his newly-purchased green wetsuit, a mask, baton and MySpace page for for his alter-ego Kick-Ass, he goes out to save the neighbourhood. 11 year old, purple-wigged Hit-Girl bursts into the scene during a rescue mission gone wrong, saving his life and delivering the devastatingly funny line to his attackers, 'Okay you cunts, let's see what you've got,' and then wastes no time laying into them with a flurry of bloody knife-action. Turns out Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz, 11-year old action prodigy) and her father Big-Daddy (Nicolas Cage in a career-reviving role) are pseudo-superheroes who are going after the bad guys to avenge the death of their wife/mother. The 'bad guys' are Frank D'Amico (the wonderful Mark Strong), the local mob boss with an artillery of goofy gang members, and increasingly also his teenage son Chris (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, McLovin' from Superbad and Role Models), who creates his own superhero alter-ego, Red Mist.

Due to the controversial nature of the film, apparently no film studio wanted to touch it unless Hit-Girl metamorphosed into a 28-year old crime-fighting machine, but creators Matthew Vaughn and Mark Millar refused to budge. As a result, it was privately funded (largely by Brad Pitt, no less) so the directors had absolute control over the film.

While the plot is quite simple, not unlike most superhero movies, there are layers in this film that take it beyond simple entertainment to potential cult status. Kick-Ass satirises the superhero genre (the heroes don't have any superpowers, Big Daddy's costume is a rip off of Batman and the hero at the centre of the action is a geek in a wetsuit), while genuflecting before its altar thematically and otherwise (good versus evil, Hit Girl's super-agile abilities and the incredibly choreographed fight scenes), all the while offering a smorgasbord of humour from light (the quips and banter of Dave and his friends) to dark (the comic book violence). Its irreverence is bound to resonate with teenagers while the cleverness of the script and brilliant action sequences will appeal to anyone who likes a good laugh and doesn't mind a bit of violence. Okay, a lot of violence, but slick and brilliantly choreographed.

Most reviews that pan the film seem to focus on the irresponsibility of placing central focus on a violent and foul-mouthed preteen, and while I agree it's not healthy by any means, in this case it does what it's meant to: be shocking and entertaining and awe-inspiring all at once. Once in her costume, Hit Girl's charisma, casual swearing and violence become something of legend, and I, for one, would have been very sorry to miss it, had she been turned into the 28 year-old studio doll most likely with a big pout and sexualised leather costume. I'll take Hit Girl dropping the f-bomb any day.

YAY - Arrested Development movie in production

It's been on again/off again, but according to the NY Daily News today, the Arrested Development movie project is on again, and this time hopefully for good. The hilarious, way-too-short, 3 season long comedy series has been a favourite of mine for years, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it in movie length. The antics of the ridiculous and sublime Bluth family is a real treat:



Gob and his segway, George Michael's secret crush on his cousin Maeby Funke, Tobias the 'analrapist' (analyst/therapist) ... I'm cracking up as I type. Tightly written and brilliantly acted, this is definitely one of my all-time favourite shows, and straddles the podium next to Seinfeld.

Looks like someone finally listened to this protester.

Laugh out loud Monday: Empire State of Mind ft Stephen Colbert

Enjoy this piece of hilarity - he dances almost as well as I do! Alicia Keys performs beautifully as usual.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

The Brothers Bloom

The Brothers Bloom is about 2 con-men brothers (Stephen played by Mark Ruffalo, who cooks up the cons, and Bloom played by Adrien Brody, who lives his life vicariously through them) and their last mark, the isolated and eccentric heiress (a.k.a 'the epileptic photographer') Penelope, played by the truly delightful Rachel Weisz.

The movie opens when the boys are young, moving from foster home to foster home, where they learn to depend only on each other against the big bad world. Stephen quickly learns how to play people (starting with 'the playground bourgeoisie') so everyone gets what they want – especially him and Bloom. He gives Bloom the life he's too shy to grab for himself, writing each con like a masterpiece of theatrical drama. But Bloom wants something real, not the written life that Stephen provides. Stephen wheedles a final con from Bloom, and this is where Bloom meets Penelope – the lonely heiress in her ivory tower, a terrible driver, interested in everything, socially awkward and definitely up for an adventure – in short, she's ripe for the picking.

Director Rian Johnson has done a wonderful job with this quirky, interesting and most of all, very funny movie. On the plus side, the scenery (the story moves across several continents), music and cast are simply superb. On the minus side, there are some holes in the plot and a too-neat ending. But on the whole, all the minuses are forgivable because it's just so charming, and there are some truly hilarious scenes that you can't help but laugh aloud at.

My usual favourite Mark Ruffalo plays the straightest of the four main characters (I forgot to mention the awesomely cool Bang Bang, the mute Japanese ingenue who likes to blow things up), but Rachel Weisz absolutely steals the show as Penelope Stamp. She is simply adorable, and makes The Brothers Bloom well worth the effort of parking on Oxford St to watch (why aren't more cinemas in Sydney other than Paddington Verona showing it??).

My top 5 con movies:

• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
• The Brothers Bloom
• Shooting Fish
• Catch Me If You Can
• Matchstick Men

Con movies on my Christmas viewing list:

• The Sting
• The Grifters

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, P.G. Wodehouse

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves is another comic caper involving the very lackadaisical constant-bachelor Bertram Wooster and his ever problem-solving butler with the bulging brain, Jeeves. This one involves two engaged couples, the idyllic English countryside and Bertie's attempts to help one couple patch up their rocky relationship (self-motivated by fear that his head will be on the marital chopping block if they don't reconcile over the vegetarian diet the droopy Madeline Bassett has imposed on her fiancè Gussie Fink-Nottle, who is hilariously and continuously referred to as Spink-Bottle by Bertie's Aunt) and a jaunty Alpine hat with a pink feather.

What can I say? P.G. Wodehouse is a comic genius – often and rightly lauded as the greatest English comic writer ever – and his books are always a welcome diversion from reality.

Curse of the Spellmans

This is the second book in the Spellman series by Lisa Lutz, and it's just as funny as the first one, The Spellman Files.

Isabelle Spellman now has her eye on John Brown, the new next-door neighbour who, with his 'conveniently common name' evidently has a secret to hide. When a temporary restraining order bars her from the Spellman offices, she turns to her octogenarian friend Morty Shilling to help save her PI licence whilst getting to the bottom of the John Brown mystery, keeping younger sister Rae from driving policeman friend Henry crazy after having run him over, and finding the copy-cat culprits of a series of pranks that bear her own juvenile trademark.

I'm now a big fan of Lisa Lutz's writing and can't wait to receive the third part of the series, Revenge of the Spellmans, which I've ordered from the Book Depository. The Spellmans are pure comic relief that relies on wit rather than farce. Highly recommended reading.

A hilarious masked caper

They had to be drunk, didn't they? God I hope so. These two clever fiends drew their own masks to burgle an apartment in Iowa.

Ananova reports:

Two burglary suspects who drew 'masks' on their faces with a permanent marker pen have been arrested in the US.

A witness told police that two men with painted disguises were trying to break into an apartment in Carroll, Iowa.

Police soon spotted a 1994 Buick Roadmaster that matched the vehicle description and stopped it. They found two occupants with mask-like scribbling on faces, Iowa's Daily Times Herald reported.

Matthew Allan McNelly, 23, and Joey Lee Miller, 20, were arrested at gunpoint because of reports they might be armed, but neither man had a weapon.

The Spellman Files, Lisa Lutz

I like my comedies funny, and bookwise, they don't get much funnier than this. The kooky Spellmans are a family of private investigators (Spellman Investigations) who are completely and utterly endearing. Mum and Dad Spellman fell in love over a stake-out many years ago and the kids grew up learning how to pick locks, tail suspects and solve mysteries.

Lisa Lutz's narrative voice is pitch-perfect as Izzy (Isabelle) Spellman, 30-year old wild-child with a perfect lawyer brother and adorably precocious younger sister. Izzy considers herself the family screw-up, but it's obvious to see the PI genes run thick in her blood, as she's not afraid to get into some tough corners to solve a case.

You'd be excused in thinking that Izzy may have ADHD, because the book has chapters and sections that seem to jump all over the place, but the underlying thread being unravelled is the story of the Spellmans through Izzy's eyes, and her place in the family. When baby sister Rae goes missing, she is launched into the most personal case of her life.

The Spellman Files is highly recommended if you like a laugh and are in the mood for a quick and funny read. There are two sequels: Curse of the Spellmans and Revenge of the Spellmans, both of which I've ordered from the Book Depository, so expect to hear more about the Spellmans from me.

You may also enjoy:

• The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Alexander McCall-Smith
• The Stephanie Plum series, Janet Evanovich

Gave me a laugh today

In Your Dreams, Tom Holt

In Your Dreams is Tom Holt's second novel in the fantasy series about J.W. Wells & Co - a multi-national corporation where magic is a commodity, and where young Paul Carpenter (the somewhat hopeless inoffensive type) finds himself bound by employment. We first met Paul in book one, the eminently readable The Portable Door. In Your Dreams takes up where that story left off, ramping up the fun while taking us deeper into this wacky fantasy world. In this second book, Paul grows a little more accustomed to his workplace surroundings and even becomes promoted to full 'hero' status after slaying a dragon (admittedly a very small one that he accidentally squashed to death by sitting on).

But new mysteries abound - prickly new love-of-his-life Sophie abruptly leaves him and soon Paul finds himself eyeball deep in the world of the Fey - the magical Faerie-like creatures with power over 'glamour'. One faction of the Fey, Paul discovers, is bent on world domination through infiltration of dreams, but with half of Hollywood in their pocket and the ensuing income this provides, no-one at profit-driven J.W. Wells & Co seems inclined to act, leaving Paul somehow the only person in the world who can take them on and save the world.

Again I have to give kudos to Tom Holt's imagination for the absurdly funny and magical elements of this book, but perhaps more so to his literary skills which manage to translate what he sees in his head onto the pages of a book. That's tough stuff. He treads the fine balance of poking deprecating humour at his hero with a genuine fondness that really comes across so we're all rooting for him too. Well worth a read.

The Portable Door, Tom Holt

If you like comedy mixed with fantasy and a lot of imagination, this is the book for you. Paul, the hero, is average bordering on loser. He's unemployed, has no luck with the ladies and gets booted out of his family home when his parents decide to move from dreary London to sunny Florida. Out of necessity, he applies for a job as a junior clerk at J.W. Wells & Co - a company he knows nothing about - and to his great surprise, he actually lands the job.

In no time, the seemingly dull business (which he still has no idea about) begins to show its rather weird and wonderful colours - but mostly weird. From his previously mundane existence, he wakes one morning to find a sword stuck in an unbudgable boulder in his small flat, then discovers a roll-up door the size of toilet roll tube that becomes a portal with no boundaries to time, place or dimension. To his mortification, he also discovers that the never-ending parade of gorgeous receptionists is actually a goblin (the mum of one of the firm's partners) who develops an inexplicable and leering crush on him. Soon, he and Sophie (the other junior clerk - a skinny, angular, prickly girl whom he is unaccountably attracted to) are bound together in a journey to uncover the mystery of J.W. Wells & Co.

Paul is an extremely engaging character and the plot and pace of The Portable Door are simply fabulous. Tom Holt's writing is fantastic and his comic timing is awesome - around 3/5 in the guffaw-metre, 4/5 on the snigger-metre and 5/5 on the smile-metre. Thankfully, The Portable Door is the beginning of a series, so expect more posts from me.

PS - If you like Terry Pratchett, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith

'It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains' begins Seth Grahame-Smith's version of Pride and Prejudice, with one key added ingredient: a proliferation of zombies in England. In this version, the Sisters Bennett are Shaolin-trained warriors engaged in her Majesty's service to protect the good people of Hertfordshire (until a suitable marriage offer, of course) and hordes of 'unmentionables' abound, whose sole aim is to gorge on the fresh brains of the living.

The first two, maybe three chapters are truly enjoyable, then the novelty factor wears off and the laughs become fewer and further between. Fans of P&P, like myself, will enjoy Grahame-Smith's almost seamless Austenese insertions of battle scenes and innuendo (the latter less successful, such as the double entendre on 'balls'), but towards the end P&P&Z becomes boring for its too-accurate following of the original plot. We already know what's going to happen - in many cases, we know it word for word already. The plot deviations are refreshing - like in Lost in Austen - as long as you don't deviate too far so as to render the characters unrecognisable. It's a fine line to tread, but a more sure-footed excursis of the original novel would have been well-received.

The inventive bits are great - Lady Catherine's ninjas, the dojo in every truly accomplished young woman's home, Elizabeth throwing Mr Darcy into the mantelpiece while rejecting his proposal - but nothing can save the plot from becoming a big yawn in the end - not even our zombie warrior heroine and her Katana. In fact, in Lydia and Wickham's case, the plot becomes totally lame. But Grahame-Smith has chosen his audience well - Austenites will flock to the book by sheer curiosity alone (this reviewer being a case in point) and he'll definitely make a crapload of money, so I guess its mission has already been accomplished.

Easy Virtue, Noel Coward

Easy Virtue is an enjoyable play with more than one layer. On the surface, the story of a brazen, older woman-of-the-world marrying the eldest son of a genteel country family and being thrust into their world is a plot ripe with explosive possibilities. On another level, Coward uses the plot to unveil the snobby culture of the English upper crust. This theme is well-worn now, but in Coward's day I can imagine that his depiction of the snobby Mrs Whittaker and her daughters - self-righteous Marion and naiive and vindictive Hilda - would have been quite a rude look in the mirror for the starched English audience.

The 2008 movie explores the first layer well, creating rich comic moments exaggerated by the fact that the temptress is American, rather than Coward's original English socialite. The chemistry between Jessica Biel's carefree brazen American intruder and stern-faced matriarch Kristin Scott-Thomas rescues the movie from descending into farce, even though the comedy turns slapstick at times.

It's a shame that Coward doesn't explore this further, as this entire period seems to fall into the crevice of the three months that pass between Act I and Act II. However it's in the second layer that Coward's dialogue really shines, managing to depict the adulterous and laconic father (the Colonel) as the most genuine and sympathetic member of the family. The two most morally corrupt characters in the play (Larita and the Colonel) in fact become Coward's heroes for their lack of hypocrisy and largeness of mind, which Larita in particular shows at the end in relinquishing what is most dear to her.

Re-reading this review so far, I notice that I haven't even mentioned the son John, whom Larita falls in love with and marries. I think that's actually part of Coward's design - John is practically an absent character known more to the audience from being spoken of than for his own presence, but he's an important character because it's through his very absence that Coward poignantly shows the damaging effect of pressure and disappointed expectation on young love.

Easy Virtue in both its forms is very enjoyable, but the ending of the movie, which diverges a little from the play, is rather perplexing. Overall a good read and enjoyable watch.