Easy to watch, and an A for effort, but ...

Rating: 7/10 (17 April 2011)

In "Can't Buy Me Love" Patrick Dempsey pays a popular cheerleader in a pickle a large sum of money if she pretends to go out with him for a month in order to raise his social standing.
Although this film's pretense wants to emulate 1850's "Scarlet Letter", the link is purely superficial. Easy A really has much more in common with 1987's Can't buy Me Love.
Emma Stone's dowdy Olive is impossibly adult-like for a high school student, and a white lie told in jest to a 'best friend' sets the ball rolling: soon every nerd in school wants to pay her for the illusion of a sexual encounter with her to raise their social standing.
Sufficed to say, after enjoying the attention for a while everything comes to a head after some adults become entwined in the drama; Olive sets the record straight with a video web-blog that every person in town seems to be watching.
All the familiar elements are there and the plot unfolds with some degree of deja-vu, yet it is fresh and watch-able enough to be enjoyable ... partly due to Emma Stone's undeniable charisma.
Amanda Bynes is a little over the top as an ultra-prudish Christian activist, and Olive's favourite teacher and her counselor are pretty underwhelming. Lisa Kudrow is under-utilised.
Dishonourable mention goes to Olive's saccharin parents; after a while watching them is like drinking a cup of coffee with four sugars - quite hard to swallow.
Its a fun teenage romp, just don't expect character development or too much depth.