British Film: Stephan Elliott's Easy Virtue (2008)

Another take on the British minor nobility, which are clearly a dying breed.  This one is set in 1920s England in a large country house and a troubled family with two daughters who are destined to become spinsters and a husband who is cold and distant (Colin Firth).  The head of the household is clearly the mother, who is dismayed when her only son comes home from the south of France with a new American wife in tow.  She is a race car driver whom he met and had a whirlwind romance.  However much was not worked out apparently when he tied the knot. 

She had not bargained for his obnoxious family, and he had not bargained for her less than immaculate past.  The women in the house instantly despise her, and this sets up the comedy that follows.  The Whittakers are fox hunters and like to go shooting, and the new wife (Jessica Biel) is dead against blood sports. 

They want the boy to take over the family estate, which is danger of being sold off and subdivided owing to their precarious finances, and she wants the boy to move to London with her and (horrors!) work for a living.  Even the art they like is different.  The family likes the old traditional stuff, and she likes Picasso and even brings one from Paris which she says is a representation of her.

  

A deft combination of comedy and pathos, I will not spoil the ending, except to say that is was a satisfying ending.  I highly recommend the film.