There are many American actresses who can slip quite happily into the period genre. Jessica Biel just isn't one of them. In fact, in 'Easy Virtue' she comes across as a little girl playing dress-up in the stately home of Kristen Scott Thomas and Colin Firth.

This, together with the dilution of Noel Coward's witty repartee and a discordant soundtrack, makes director Stephan Elliot's 'Easy Virtue' a palatable, but ultimately forgettable, period comedy.

Set in the 1920s in England, 'Easy Virtue' is a drawing-room comedy which pokes fun at the English aristocracy. The Whittaker family is oh-so-proper, oh-so-English and oh-so-dysfunctional. On the verge of financial ruin, the family is held together by nothing more than tradition and propriety. And when the Whittaker's beloved son John (Ben Barnes) surprises the family by bringing home his new wife following his trip abroad, things begin to crumble...

Not only is Larita (Biel) American, she is also a professional racing car driver. This thoroughly modern woman (a little too modern for the film) is despised by Mummy Whittaker (the ever-fabulous Kristen Scott Thomas), who hoped her son would marry the daughter of the rich neighbour, before she even arrives. Naturally, because Mrs Whittaker hates her, the sardonic Mr Whittaker (Colin Firth) is predisposed to liking her.

When Larita does arrive, the two become engaged in a battle of wills that sees traditional England clash with modern America in a battle that is at times witty and biting and at times downright ridiculous.

Throughout the film Scott Thomas and Firth hold the promise of something better but, in the end, the handsome-but-innocuous Barnes and the gorgeous-but-thespian-challenged Biel leave much to be desired.