Easy A

Olive (Emma Stone) was a normal teen until she lied about losing her virginity to her obnoxious best friend. She thought it no big deal until the high-school’s self righteous Marianne (Amanda Bynes) overhears, and like wildfire, the gossip spreads. When her gay friend asks for her help in disproving his homosexuality, Olive reluctantly agrees to a fake sexual encounter at a party.

Afterwards, Olive begins to accept bribes from the school’s social outcasts, allowing them to falsely claim their own sexual encounters with her. At first, Olive enjoys the extra attention and even embraces her new role by wearing her own scarlet “A” to coincide with her English class’ study of The Scarlet Letter. Soon, Olive is labeled as the school’s newest floozy and begins to become ostracized. With the gossip out of control and her reputation destroyed, Olive begins to heavily regret her lies; echoing the truth of Proverbs 18:7-8:

“A fool’s mouth is his undoing, and his lips are a snare to his soul. The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.”

The film has notable actors. It’s nice to see Emma Stone in a lead role. She’s charming as Olive, and this film should open new opportunities for her. However, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson have excellent chemistry as Olive’s parents and steal every scene they’re in. Penn Badgley plays Woodchuck Todd, Olive’s love interest. While their getting together is predicted from the onset, his character is refreshingly respectful and mature. He never believes the rumors, and when Olive rejects his kiss, he is very gentleman about it, a very rare Hollywood moment. The film displays the damage of gossip, and the double standard society has placed upon men and women who are sexually active. While the male social outcasts garner a new respect for their sexual exploits, Olive suffers more, since she is a female.

Objectionable Content

This film should have been rated R. There are over 40 uses of profanity, including 22 sh*t, 10 GD, 8 b*tch, and 5 as*. In one scene alone, over 6 uses of GD and 6 sh*t are spewed out. The names of God and Jesus are profaned numerous times, as well. The sexually derogatory words of d*ck and t*ts are used frequently.

Though there are no sex scenes, the entire film is heavily saturated with sexual language, references, and revealing outfits. One of the self-proclaimed Christians has an affair with a faculty member and contracts Chlamydia before blaming Olive. When Olive and her friend pretend to have sex, they make various noises and sexual comments to create a believable illusion to the eavesdroppers. Several sexual discussions occur as the outcasts barter with Olive on what they may claim they did with her. A woman’s breast hits Olive in the face while a bong is passed. Homosexuality is accepted as normal and, at times, praised throughout the film. While Olive’s parents are positive and loving, they give her very worldly advice about the normalcy of homosexuality and being sexually active. Her mother tells Olive of her promiscuous past and how her being a contortionist benefited her sex life; her father tells her that he was once gay for a long time.

Olive’s antagonist is the Hollywood stereotype of the “self-righteous Christian.” Marianne is spiteful, a gossip, and very smug; the complete opposite of the fruit Christians should bear (Gal. 5:22-23). She has no resemblance to what a true follower of Christ should be. Perhaps the most disturbing part of the movie is during their religious meeting, the teens pray to get rid of Olive and sing empty songs of worship. Since nonbelievers often do not know Scripture, Christians should be a diligent light for Christ since we are often the only representation of Christ, some will ever see. In Colossians 4:5-6, Paul wrote:

“Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

While the film’s “Christians” did condemn premarital sex, they conveniently skip all of their own sins, as if adultery were worse than gossip, lies, and hatred.

When her deception began to take its toll, Olive goes in search of advice. She reads some verses from the Bible and seeks advice from religious leaders, asking which is worse: lies or adultery. While they never give her the answer, the correct response would be that both are wrong. Sin is sin. If a person commits even just one sin, then they are guilty of breaking God’s law. In James 2:10, he wrote, “for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” Since we all fall short of the glory of God, Jesus Christ became the atoning sacrifice for all of our sins.

As for whether or not I recommend this film, I wholeheartedly say to avoid it. Aside from its offensive content, the film has no worthy redemptive value, not because of its plot basis, but because of its execution and plot filler. “Easy A” does effectively show the destructive consequences of lies and gossip, and the ending is suitable, with Olive coming clean. However, the film had other agendas which permeated the film’s dialogue and jokes from beginning to end, and Christians shouldn’t pay money to hear it.

Violence: Mild / Profanity: Heavy to Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Heavy

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

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• Young people
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