From the man behind Priscilla Queen of the Desert comes a tale of a fish out of water set in the 1920s where the British class structure is teetering on the brink of collapse.

The film adapts Noel Coward's biting 1924 play of the same name. It features eager English aristocrat John Whittaker (Ben Barnes), who abandoned his responsibilities on the family's country estate to travel the world, returning home with a beautiful and high-spirited American bride Larita (Jessica Biel).

From the moment his mother, played by Kristin Scott Thomas with her usual plum-in-mouth ease, sets eyes on Larita it is clear the newest addition to the family is in for a rough time.

What follows for the first half of the film is a battle of wits and wills between the two Mrs Whittakers, which offers viewers some truly wonderful moments of farce.

In Priscilla, Elliott proved he had a knack for getting the bitchy undercurrents flowing and he doesn't disappoint here.

Mrs Whittaker snr and her two charming daughters, eldest Marion played with gusto by British comedienne Katherine Parkinson and the flighty but destructive teenager Hilda (Kimberley Nixon) form the malicious triumvirate intent on separating the newlyweds, while Colonel Whittaker (Colin Firth) becomes an unexpected kindred spirit for the trapped Larita.

But the film soon evolves into a darker beast.

Elliott deftly brings Coward's searing exposition of the hypocrisy of polite 1920s society to the fore and exposes the way the aristocracy used antiquated Victorian moral values - rendered obsolete by the horrors of Leg 1World War I - to interfere with the lives of people outside its control.

But the story never wallows and the film's brisk pace, Coward's shockingly sharp dialogue, top leads and terrific support cast (watch out for Kris Marshall as the scene-stealing butler) save this from being a by-the-numbers production.