Emma Stone stars in a witty, postmodern teen comedy that references the
John Hughes films of the 1980s, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel
The Scarlet Letter from 1850 and the Demi Moore film adaptation of that book from 1995.
Olive is a smart, fast-talking 17-year-old student in California who makes up a story about sleeping with a boy. It becomes a rumour that spreads around the school, and this in turn transforms her reputation and leads to a sequence of escalating fictions that threaten the wellbeing of Olive and many others.
It’s extremely clever. Some of the lines are so fast that you miss them. You almost need the script in front of you. Stone is magnetic and vibrant. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are funny as Olive’s warm, ultra-liberal parents. Lisa Kudrow has an awkward energy as the school guidance counsellor who only makes Olive’s problems worse.
On the down side, there are some plot issues. Olive appears to have a happy, stable family life with understanding parents, so nothing explains why she would go to such lengths to derail her entire existence. Also, it’s unclear why the rumour becomes such a major scandal anyway. In a mixed school, with teens of that age, in that part of the USA, was it really such a big deal that someone lost their virginity?
Also, there’s very little in the way of emotion. That’s surely intentional, but it does mean the film makes less of an impact than it might.
