The Case for the Scarlet Woman

After a pretty awesome trailer and a few good reviews, I had fairly high expectations heading into Easy A. But my expectations dropped rapidly when three previews before the film were for films that insulted my intelligence and gave me an inkling of the taste of non-companion members of the audience: one for another Focker film (NOOOOO); another for a film so bland that I have already forgotten it; and the final was one of those “no need to see the film” trailers for a terrible “wild boy meets sobering girl mixed with disease of the week” films called Love and other Drugs that left me almost nauseous.


Quickly, Easy A reassured me that I had not just wasted my entry fee and was actually going to see a film I might enjoy. The first hints were there with the very inventive credits, and then when the delicious Amy Stone (as Olive) wandered into view with her deep, world weary voice, and delivering dialogue so sharp it almost drew blood, I knew I could relax a bit.

Story synopsis: Olive embarks on a career as a “socialator” for those wanting to improve their reputations at school. She embraces her scarlet letter, but finds a downside when the fantasy of her hook ups begins to negatively impact on her life and real relationships. (Did that sound enough like a magazine “story wrap”? Wonder if I could make a living out of it).

The actors are all amazing, and its all done very well, so it’s up to the story to provide the occasional slip ups: Olive’s family starts off as improbably funny and then just becomes improbable (the less said about the random son, the better); there seems to be serious problems in sticking to an “age” for Olive and her peers all the way through the film, as they are either so young that what she does is shocking (though physically they mostly all look in their 20s), or else they are at a school which exists in some parallel universe where teenagers don’t have $ex or participate in scandalous gossip; and the ending of the film comes so quickly and is resolved to tritely as to be almost an insult to the movie which it is meant to complete.

That said, the film is amazingly written, with enough references to 80s movies to make me feel almost young for a few minutes (and then the “this was the song I made out to when I was about 10” scene came up and I instantly felt aged about 50 years), the dialogue contains enough recurring themes to make those paying attention laugh loudly, and it stays away from serious swearing and nudity in favour of mild to medium language with no clothesless scenes whatsoever.

I did fear for the movie-worldliness of the other cinema-goers when a very obvious “twist” was met with loud screams of surprise by the audience. At the time, I did hope that this was a sarcastic ejaculation, but the lack of obvious irony in the exclamations of surprise led me to believe that, really, these people had not seen this coming, and that, possibly, they would be left comatose should they watch any thriller/mystery not based on an Enid Blyton book.

Verdict: Easy A makes the creation of a good movie all look so effortless, though the odd missteps along the way show that it’s hard work to sustain “goodness” for a whole film. Emma Stone is a ridiculously beautiful and talented individual (one of the best things about Zombieland too) and it’s great that her profile will be enhanced by this film. It’s a shame about the end of the film, though. 20 scarlet letters out of 26.