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Every now and then a movie appears, aimed at a young public but which is based upon a rather old tale like The Taming Of The Shrew by William Shakespeare which was rewritten to a modern day tale in 10 Things I Hate About You. Easy A is an update of The Scarlet Letter, but a remake which acknowledges the origins by actually telling the audience what the events happening in this movie are based upon. For those who don’t know, The Scarlet letter is about a woman accused of adultery, in a time that was still scandalous, and who has to wear a red A. In this update, which takes place in a high school, a rumor is spread that mousy student Olive (Emma Stone) lost her virginity over a weekend when she was merely home boring herself to death. The rumor leads to different reactions from students. Boys are suddenly more interested in her, while a group of religious fanatics despise her immediately for giving up her virginity. When her gay best friend gets her to put on a fake show of them having sex at a party so people would see him as a hetero Olive becomes the go-to girl for desperate guys trying to create a reputation. Olive becomes a sex-less prostitute in a way.
The writers have taken a good look at Juno and movies by Kevin Smith and gave us a protagonist who is way smarter than the average student and has a pretty large vocabulary. She also has those parents you only see in movies or in television shows. Parents who have complete faith in their children to make the right decisions and parents who kids are not ashamed of. Totally unrealistic, from my point of view, but the interaction between Olive and her parents is one of the highlights of the movie. Emma Stone, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson have great chemistry and dynamics together.
The movie references a lot of John Hughes movies directly by inserting clips and having Olive tell us how she wishes her life could be a John Hughes movie, apparently not realizing she already is. The fourth wall broken by Olive when she’s talking to her webcam explaining the whole story through a flashback. This technique enables her to make sly comments completing the already sharp script.
Though fun and energetic the movie does present us with some weird morals about her virginity. Apparently the whole school is shocked about on of their fellow students having sex. I can’t quite remember anyone’s virginity was such a hot topic at my school. I can understand how the Jesus-nutjobs out there can be quite condemning about a free spirited approach to sex, but the rest of the teens are probably too busy with their own sex life to focus this extremely of another one’s sex life.
Easy A is sharp, witty and full of laughs. It also made me want to do a John Hughes marathon.
