A good movie with trouble in the details

Rating: 5/10 (6 October 2010)

There's a good movie lurking within Easy A, I can say that with great certainty. A film aiming to make Emma Stone the new Molly Ringwald, it succeeds in a few departments. Emma Stone shines, and the movie offers a few instances of great dramatic intrigue. However, one sin it commits brings it down greatly: it does not manage to be consistently funny.
Emma Stone stars Olive Penderghast, a small town high school student who manages to top the gossip chain by creating rumours of her promiscuity. Using it to help the woeful male losers pretend they got action, Olive bathes in both gift cards and infamy. However, once the consequences of her actions become apparent, the spotlight is suddenly less bright.
The plot definitely has some dramatic high points, above all relating to the teacher/guidance counsellor married couple played by Thomas Haden Church and Lisa Kudrow, a story that perhaps would have been better served as the main plot line rather than a sub plot. Olive being solicited for the real deal is also a dramatic high point. Many of the supporting actors not brought in for comedic relief absolutely sell these moments and make them by far the most memorable parts of the film.
Emma Stone is an incredibly charismatic lead and is well positioned to be the teen queen of the generation. It is a testament to her performance that she is incredibly watchable even while given a terribly wish-washy character, who until the end flip-flops between regretful and infamy-loving at an alarming rate. While some of her one-liners are decently amusing, some stand out as particularly horrible, notably the Tom Cruise line from the trailer (how was that line considered good enough to make the promotional material?).
Two major parts of the plot and cast fail miserably though. While a male romantic interest was necessary, Penn Badgely as Todd seems to be something out of a particularly bad John Hughes movie. This is made ten times worse when the film pokes fun at those very same John Hughes movies. Perhaps if the male lead was less of a underwear model, the overall theme of the film would be less muddied.
Also failing epically is Amanda Bynes as the hyper-Catholic Marianne, whose circle ostracizes Olive. Her acting is consistently hammed up and her groups actions and interactions seem far too cartoonish in contrast to the films real dramatic tension. The movie also seems perhaps a little too gung-ho on an anti-religion slant, using religion as a shortcut to indicate people just not minding their own business.
The general kookiness of some of the characters is also somewhat offputting. Olive introduces her best friends parents as very strange people, seemingly only to keep us from noticing how very strange her own parents are. They are clearly portrayed as loving, and Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson clearly have fun, but they aren't as funny or important as they should be.
In all, the film has many issues, but a great film does lie beneath them. Even with those issues, the movie could have been forgiven if it was at least funny. While it has some great moments and will surely be a star-making vehicle for Stone, Easy A doesn't quite make the grade (worst pun ever, I'm aware).