Relative Values

... a trying-too-hard film version of a bubbleheaded Nol Coward play...

The lightweight comedy remains undemanding, but offers some droll Brit humor that might satisfy the Anglophiles.

This probably isn't one of Noël Coward's better plays for me, but Eric Styles has managed to assemble a solid cast to make this adaptation just about watchable. Edward Atterton (Lord Marshwood) has fallen for Hollywood star "Miranda" (Jeanne Tripplehorn) who is, in turn, on the rebound from a relationship with her on-screen partner "Lucas" (William Baldwin). After their whirlwind romance on the Côte d'Azur they plan to return to his stately pile where his dowager countess mother "Felicity" (Dame Julie Andrews) is waiting to greet them. Now this woman is rather shrewd and egged on by her mischievous nephew "Peter" (Colin Firth) decides to let matters take their course... That plan is rather spiked by a surprise announcement from her long-term confidante "Moxie" (Sophie Thompson) that, coupled with the pursuing "Lucas", creates the template for quite an engaging, if one-dimensional, theatrical farce. Nobody is really challenged here, the plot delivers competent efforts from both cast and screenplay along lines that don't really provide much humour or originality, and that concludes very much as you might expect. It's well photographed (though not very well edited) and Dame Julie brings that certain star quality that we seldom see nowadays. I would probably have left this to the stage where I expect it would have worked better - on the silver screen it falls a bit flat.

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