Super script and a great performance from Emma Stone

Rating: 9/10 (24 December 2011)

You know a good film from early on as it sucks you in and refuses to let you go until the credits roll. Emma Stone (as Olive) sucks you in right from the start after an inventive title sequence which lasts well into the films first few minutes. Stone is not just perfectly cast for the role of Olive she delivers every ounce of sharpness from a terrific script and screenplay. And the characters around Olive are just so perfectly pitched and played by a very strong support.
It is hard to dislike this film or its multi-layered messages about how we deceive ourselves as we seek to deceive others, and how we'd like to have something stronger than the truth to suck and see especially when the revealed fiction is about someone we can watch being destroyed. Olive becomes an unlikely target for destruction because truth bores the pants off of others in her life.
But Olive is not the destructive type. In fact Olive has a heart so big it gets her into all kinds of mischief and it is just a question of how far things will go before she breaks if indeed she has a breaking point.
The film is fun to watch with some real laugh out loud moments but it still manages to get its messages across at every opportunity. So I award a maximum ten to Emma Stone and a handsome nine to the film as a whole. Recommended with a warning (You will want to watch it all over again).