By Erica Blankenship
In a world of cutesy, unoriginal, and trite romantic teen comedies, Easy A is a breath of fresh, albeit raunchy and sarcastic, air. The plot is anything but simple: a girl pretends to lose her virginity to get her best friend to stop berating her. She later proceeds to ‘fake rock’ the worlds of other unfortunate victims of high school bullying including a homosexual nice guy, a pudgy ice cream server, and others. What she didn’t expect as a consequence was being labeled a slut by her Puritanical imitating classmates.
Coincidentally, her English class is studying Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. At first, the main character, Olive, attempts to prove to her best friend and other characters that what began as a rumor is indeed a rumor. However, once this route fails, she embraces her newfound reputation and the lies begin to tornado into what can be labeled as the “oh crap” moment of every romantic comedy.
The film stars Emma Stone with an endearing performance as the main character. Her character becomes someone that you might want to hang out with, creating the empathy for the main character that films almost always need to be successful. Supporting performances include Stanley Tucci as Olive’s father and Patricia Clarkson as her mother. If the plot and main character had not been quite as strong, they would have stolen the show.
Other notable performances included Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow as English teacher and school guidance counselor, respectively. Marianne, the character played by Amanda Bynes, is one-dimensional, underdeveloped and less significant than it would seem in the trailers for the film. But, she is only one weak point in an overall strong film.
Certain moments of the film would appear over-handed at best. What are the chances that during this particular crisis of the main character’s life, her English class would be studying The Scarlet Letter? However, because of the sarcastic nature of the main character’s voiceover, the audience is left laughing at the coincidence rather than mocking its happenstance.
The humor is dry and intelligent rather than the usual overstated and Neanderthal sense of humor found in recent teenage movie fare. Case and point to this fact, actually reading The Scarlet Letter amplifies the humor and reinforces certain thematic issues.
Another positive aspect of the film is that it does not take itself too seriously. This is not a film meant to change society on massive levels. However, it realizes that and even seamlessly encompasses this into the film. For instance, Olive remarks on the movie version of The Scarlet Letter starring Demi Moore. She makes fun of the movie adaptation of the book and its failure to translate well to film. Yet, while doing so, this film recognizes that it is something of a movie adaptation as well. This kind of self-awareness really helps to augment the humor of the film.
All in all, this film was excellent. It was the one of the few films that I thoroughly enjoyed and I left feeling no resentment for spending ten dollars on a movie ticket. I laughed throughout the entire film, but was still left wanting more at the end. Highly recommended for anyone who wants a comedy that’s fun to watch, heartwarming, and an escape from the monotony of homework.
