In bester Gesellschaft - Eine Familie zum Abgewöhnen

Relative Values was never given a Broadway production during the lifetime of Noel Coward. It only made it there in 1986 thirteen years after Noel died. But in the original British production the star was the formidable Gladys Cooper. She's in the role of Duchess of Marchwood so Julie Andrews had some big shoes to fill.

I'll have to say that Andrews did it good style and a British production of even a second line Noel Coward work is better than a lot that is around. What I found interesting that with his various trips across the pond Coward felt comfortable enough to put some American characters in his work.

Andrews is the mother of Edward Atterton who is a well known jet setting playboy who always comes home to mother especially when things go spectacularly bad or good. Depending on your point of view he arrives home with American movie star Jeanne Tripplehorn in tow who is on the rebound from a breakup. They're going to be married, a fact that does not please mother.

Neither does it please William Baldwin who is an action film star of the era, late Forties when the play was written. He's who Tripplehorn is on the rebound from and he wants her back. He knows full well that Tripplehorn would be bored to tears as the lady of the manor in training in the quiet English countryside.

Add to all of that Sophia Thompson is personal maid to Andrews and she's Tripplehorn's long lost sister. It all comes to a head when Tripplehorn starts spouting off the invented studio biography where Thompson who has a fake status of her own for the occasion just explodes and these two have a cat fight to beat all.

Observing all this are butler Stephen Fry and cousin Colin Firth who seems to be a permanent house guest. They get the lion's share of the Coward wit in the dialog. This is Coward who was the pet of the English society. But Coward's third voice in the film is that of Thompson. Coward came from some pretty humble background and she also might very well be modeled on Coward's good friend from adolescence Gertrude Lawrence who also came from most modest means.

Relative Values was a pleasure to see because other than his really acclaimed work like Blithe Spirit or Private Lives, too little of Coward is played today. We could certainly use some of his wit now. I often wonder what Coward would have made of some of the events of the last forty years.

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.

This was a pretty darn good movie, and I always enjoy seeing Julie Andrews do comedy. But for me, the highlight of the movie was the dinner scene, with "Moxy" (Sophie Thompson) furiously biting her tongue while her clueless real-life sister (Jeanne Trippelhorn) concocts falsely slanderous stories about their mother, painting her as a bawdy alcoholic. Moxy's outraged cry of "Jugs of Beer!?" after Miranda/Freda leaves is priceless, as is her dressing down of Freda near the end of the film.

I liked this film, too, because it didn't sink too far into the "Silly Ass/Bright Young Thing" mode that most of Coward's works tend to. Rent it if you can. It's worth catching.

This is great fun and a reminder of when actors and actresses just weren't welcome in polite society (and why). Just watching Colin Firth's face is delicious, he is subtle, funny and brilliant! The star-struck maid alone is worth the price of admission; and Stephen Frye is a perfect butler to Julie's elegant, polished master of each successive situation. Sophie Thompson steals the dinner scene and just about every other one she is in. This is a fabulous, literate comedy of manners with everyone spot-on with their characters. Every time I watch it I find something clever, witty and subtle that I missed the previous time. Just sit back and have fun watching all the stereotypes get skewered.

Most of the criticism has been because the gags of Noel Coward about class are not so funny now as they were then. But that is just to judge the film by the play. It's *mildly* funny - I dozed at the beginning but then woke up when I realised how enjoyable it was. The real gems are the superb performances all the way through and the way English and American life, mannerisms and etiquette of the 50's (when they were far more distinct) are portrayed so touchingly. Luxuriate in a nice comfy cinema seat (if they have them near you) and be pampered by it!