Easy A

It’s surprising that a Hollywood teen comedy understand the 19th Century puritanical tragedy, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘The Scarlet Letter,’ and finds a comic possibility there and gives us a film that is intelligent and very funny, not in a slapstick way.

Easy A tells the story of a teenager who tells a lie to save her face, and soon, as the rumours spread, things go out of hand. And, as the protagonist, Olive, Emma Stone gives a star-making performance, ably supported by Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, as her supporting parents. (When her friend comes to their door and asks, Is Olive there, Clarkson’s mom replies, there’s whole jar in the fridge.)

To avoid spending the weekend with her best friend and her obnoxious family, Olive tells her that she has a date with a college-going boy. Later, she also admits to having sex with the ‘boyfriend’. Soon, the news spreads like wildfire that Olive is sleeping with an older boy. When she is labels as whore, Olive goes a step further and becomes the Hester Prynne of ‘The Scarlet Letter,’ by wearing the ‘A’ on her dresses, which leads to a series of comic interlude, which talks a lot about sex, without any real activity. And thankfully, it’s not the American Pie variety.