Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Based on Noel Coward's play, Relative Values is the story of an English family with high standing, and what happens when the heir to the estate brings a wild Hollywood starlet home to meet his Mom just prior to their wedding. The kicker is that this scandal is compounded by the fact that Mom's personal maid is this trollop's sister and they've not seen each other since a violent split 20 years prior. Hilarity ensues.

Julie Andrews plays the Duchess (or whatever it was) and does so with a wonderfully ornery and sarcastic edge. I'd always viewed her as too-pure-to-stomache so this role was a delightful surprise to me. Andrews puts just the right amount of snark into this family matriarch and had me holding my sides with laughter. I do sooo adore a good verbal back hand.

Colin Firth is the reason I wanted to see this one, and that gut instinct paid off in spades. Firth is the nephew of Andrew's character and sort of hangs around the house for no other reason than to toss out one-liners and smirk gorgeously. Apparently this lovable smart ass character of his was a reflection of Noel Coward himself and Firth was the right man to pull it off. Outstanding.

The other casting decision I found to be spot on is the maid/sister: Moxie. English actress Sophie Thompson (Gosford Park, Nicholas Nickleby) was amazingly fun in this. She plays this role just a hair over the top, on purpose. I'd never noticed her before this, but she is just precious and should get more high-profile roles. She has a remarkably good time with this role and her performance is the icing on the cake that pushes this movie up from the merely amusing into the must see realm.

Billy Baldwin outshines both his brothers as the fading leading man and alcoholic ex-boyfriend of the money-grubbing starlett. When he shows up at the family estate, all hell breaks loose and Baldwin doesn't miss a beat.

Filmed on the Isle of Man, this one also has some gorgeous scenery. The estate used in this film is just breathtaking and they use it to full effect to subtly instill in the viewer just how much this family is worth without taking the usual horrid US method of mentioning such things over and over. We do not need to be spoonfed (ok, well.. I don't at least..) and much prefer this kind of quiet background usage to Hollywood's outright banging the audience over the head with it. Great decision on the part of Director Eric Styles.

Rated PG in the US for language. Oh just bite me. The language is nothing to get your panties in a bunch over, and is mostly British language at that so it is unlikely that most kids would even recognize it as 'foul language' anyway. Honestly, though, this is British humor and the thing is that kids in the US would have no interest until ooh about 14 or so anyway. Appreciation for this sort of brilliance is drummed out of the majority of us.

Four stars for Relative Values and I highly recommend it for those who do retain their sense of humor and for folks who particularly enjoy the British brand of humor. I did not want this one to end. I wanted to see what this family was going to get up to next..



Recommended: Yes