Claim: Easy Virtue is not the first adaptation of a play.

Easy Virtue is a 2008 British romantic comedy film based on Noël Coward 's play of the same name . The play was previously made into the silent movie Easy Virtue -LRB- 1928 -RRB- by Alfred Hitchcock . This adaptation is directed by Stephan Elliott , written by Elliott and Sheridan Jobbins , and stars Jessica Biel , Ben Barnes , Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas . The score contains many Coward and jazz-age songs , some of which are sung or partially sung by the cast .   Easy Virtue is a social comedy in which a glamorous American widow , Larita , impetuously marries a young Englishman , John Whittaker , in the South of France . When they return to England to meet his parents , his mother takes an immediate and strong dislike to the new daughter-in-law , while his father , Jim , finds a kindred spirit . Family tensions escalate .   The film was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and London Film Festival prior to its 7 November release by Pathé in the UK . Subsequently , the film was also screened at the Rio International Film Festival , Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi , and the Rome Film Festival . It closed the Adelaide Film Festival prior to the Australian theatrical release on 12 March 2009 . In May 2009 it was released in the US .   In the United States , the film enjoyed some commercial success . Sony Pictures Classics paid an estimated $ US1 million to acquire the film 's distribution rights in the United States , Latin America and South Africa . The film went on to gross $ US2 .5 million in limited theatrical release in the United States .