Easy "A" is really an Easy "D"

Rating: 3/10 (20 August 2011)

'Easy A' was written by a first-time screenwriter, Bert V. Royal, and it shows! It's not his fault that most of the actors who play the high school students at 'Ojai North High School' (including the 22 year old star, Emma Stone) are too old for their parts. Director Will Gluck and his casting director must take the blame entirely for that. Royal, on the other hand, has proffered up a script featuring a fairly unsympathetic protagonist, pitted against an assortment of noxious antagonists, most of whom are pure stereotypes.
Mr. Royal has really found the formula for making a quick buck in the film industry. Simply come up with a story about shallow teenagers who attend a high school. Royal reportedly concocted this smug tale in five days and it shows. His protagonist, Olive Penderghast, is an insecure teen who initially doesn't want to let her best friend Rhiannon know that she's a virgin, so she concocts a tall tale of a weekend liaison with a guy at a local community college. Marianne, daughter of a Christian minister and campus gossip, overhears Olive's fictitious claim and then spreads the word that Olive is a slut and soon enough most of the kids at school turn against her.
At first, Olive appears sympathetic, as she is willing to help Brandon, an insecure gay kid who hopes to gain acceptance from his peers by pretending that he's straight. Olive helps him accomplish this by agreeing to simulate a sexual encounter with him, behind closed doors at a party thrown by the 'most popular' teen at the school. But then Olive decides to embrace her notoriety by accepting gift cards from nerds who ask her to vouch that she's had some kind of sexual contact with them.
Since the student body is basically depicted as a bunch of nasty, back-stabbing gossips, Olive is unable to withdraw from the collective condemnation and perhaps seek support from a more sensitive, intellectual type of student. Even the cool English teacher, Mr. Griffith (Thomas Haden Church) fails to help her. In a completely awkward scene, a student calls Olive an "abominable tramp", likening her to Hester Prynne from Hawthorne's 'Scarlet Letter". For some reason, however, Olive ends up in Principal Gibbon's (Malcolm McDowell) office after calling her an abominable 'twat'. I found it a bit unbelievable that a student would have to go to detention for merely calling another student a 'twat', especially after her rival started the whole thing; in addition, other students who have been actually physically assaulting one another, seem to receive an equal punishment . Actually it's never explained who actually sends Olive to the principal's office (why didn't sensitive Mr. Griffith try and defuse the situation?) and Malcolm McDowell, is also unbelievable as a surly martinet who cuts the kids no slack whatsoever.
What's worse is that we're asked to root for Olive after she begins accepting the gift cards. By doing so, ultimately she bears the responsibility for compounding her negative reputation on campus and no one seems to point that out to her. Why does she act so surprised that one date almost takes things too far? Why also root for her when all the misguided males (sans good guy Todd) have no redeeming qualities? Also ask yourself whether you find it funny that these insecure males (en masse) would offer gifts to a woman who has such a dubious reputation. Is it really worth it to them, to have her vouch for them? In reality, having sexual contact with such an outcast as Olive, would probably lead to scorn from their peers--not approbation! So the whole idea that these nerds would shower gifts on Olive makes little sense!
Olive is allowed to indulge in her negative, acting-out behavior since she's depicted as a total victim of a gossip-ridden society. Even if you believe that most people are like that, at least give your opponents their due: even the unprincipled have something of a likability factor! Not here! In addition to the insecure males, Christians also get short shrift here too. I have no objection to criticizing or making fun of those of the Christian faith but at least create some real life characters to shoot down. Here the Christians are narrow-minded bigots, buffoons, easily disposed of since they are completely one-dimensional. Even educators can't catch a break. Lisa Kudrow's Mrs. Griffith is perhaps the most unpleasant character in 'Easy A', having sex with one of the students and another one of those unlikeable individuals who have no guilt feelings about throwing Olive under the bus. Only Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, who play Olive's over the top 'New Age' parents, manage to eke out a few laughs by taking permissive parenting to one big extreme.
'Easy A' ends awkwardly as it begins. Somehow, Olive's bombastic musical production in the high school gym and a one last 'heart-felt' web cast manages to convince the surly high school population that she's not so bad after all, turning everything around. And she finds 'true love' to boot with that one 'sensitive' guy who respects her decision not to give away her virginity right away.
Despite the poor script, the acting and direction in 'Easy A' is spot on and the film has some nifty cinematography. If you can stand all the implausibilities and lack of 'ideas', you might find all this somewhat entertaining. For more discerning eyes, the most predictable thing here is that the critics were once again taken in by all the tripe. Hopefully, a few of us will pray for their misguided souls!