In Easy A, Emma Stone plays Olive, a teenager flying under the social radar. All of this changes when she uses a little tiny white lie to get out of hanging with her BFF’s creepy naturist parents. The falsehood spreads like a wildfire evolving from hanging out with a college student to sleeping with him. Olive chooses to embrace the lie and soon she is the talk of the schoolyard as every guy wants leech off her infamy, offering gift certificates in exchange for the implication that they “did it”. Of course it won’t come as a surprise that eventually Olive changes her mind and has to scramble to save her good name.
Like many of these teen comedies, the lead is wise beyond her years but still susceptible to making youthful mistakes. Like Juno this movie’s protagonist is ready to give out a witty comeback and use words that exceed the average vocabulary. I wouldn’t call this realistic, and the actions, or rather overreactions, of supporting characters puts Easy A in familiar territory. Fortunately some of the jokes are brilliant. One that will stay with me for a long time to come illustrates Olive’s growing fondness for a song that plays when she opens a greeting card sent to her from her grandmother. Through the use of montage an entire weekend eclipses and Olive goes from despising the tune to singing it in the shower.
There are some stereotypes that get their usual Hollywood poking. I already mentioned how the nudist parents are weird, but on the other end of the spectrum is the controlling “Jesus freak” Marianne (Amanda Bynes) that provides the predictable conflict that works its way into the second act. Would it have been nice for someone to be religious without being a hypocrite or bigoted? Sure.
Olive spends a lot of time on her own and it wasn’t until late in the game that I realized how Todd (Penn Badgley) is being setup as her love interest, and no one should see this coming as his appearances are widely spaced and his impact minimal. If Easy A is supposed to be quirky, original, and/or thought provoking then it’s counterintuitive to fall back on the social norm with such a lifeless relationship. Olive is a likable character and this movie didn’t feel like it needed her to be thrown into a guy’s arms in order to find happiness. And the way it is executed is so peculiar. So much time is dedicated to building Olive’s promiscuous persona that nice guy Todd logically shouldn’t be interested, in fact it’s borderline insulting to think that the average teenage male is looking for the kind of girl who has been physical with everyone he knows. I’ve been out of high school for a little less than ten years, could things have changed that much?
I’m a little disappointed in the way Easy A concludes. It’s a wrapping up that calls upon nostalgia, and in the movie business that means reminding the audience of what movie(s) you want them to consider as an equal. Connecting Easy A to a number of ’80s teenage love stories doesn’t require a roll call. By mentioning The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off by name is arrogant while the inclusion of an amalgamation ‘80s ending is downright lazy. It’s a sour note to play out a tune that started high and sweet. **½
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