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Olive (Emma Stone) is a high school student who went by unnoticed in the corridor, that is until a little white lie gets her in a whole heap of trouble. Olive pretends she has a date in order to get out of spending the weekend with her friends parents but the fake date leads to pretending to lose her virginity and already Olive is started to get noticed. When she pretends to have sex with a fellow student to help him hide his homosexuality rumours become wild fire and before you know it Olive is the high school tramp.

Playing on the themes from ‘The Scarlett Letter’ which Olive is actually studying in school, Easy A exhumes the smart teen comedy that we’ve been waiting for since Clueless. Emma Stone does well in the title role but for this reviewer there is something about her that just doesn’t fit. It’s not just in this movie but in all her works. Perhaps it’s the deep voice or the face that seems a little too flat? Regardless she holds her own here and she is quickly becoming a hot commodity in Hollywood with a turn as Gwen Stacey in the forthcoming Spider-Man reboot.

What I enjoyed most about this film was Amanda Bynes who plays Marianne, a devout Christian who firmly believes Olive is going to hell for her sins. However this could have been so much more. I would have liked to have seen the relationship between the two explored further and whilst I’m sure the writers didn’t want to bog the film down in religious sentiment they could have still focused on sexual temptation for a Christian.

Easy A is set in California, yet whilst the exterior shots are bright and crisp the interior shots all seem too dark and lacking in colour and vibe. I can’t think of any artistic reason why this would be other than when inside her family home Olive lives her real life which is gloomy in comparison to riding the rumour wave outside those comfortable four walls.

Whilst the supporting cast don’t have an awful lot to do I think special mention should go out to Stanley Tucci for his performance as Olive’s father. He just seems to resonate with comedic effect and stands out within the scenes he is in.

Overall the film is an enjoyable journey that doesn’t fall victim to the gross-out style of humour that has plagued our screens in the past few years. The subject matter is handled smartly, not coarsely that it has to touch on gross out humour or gratuitous nudity. In fact, it’s about time a film like this took comedy and took it back to how it should be.

Certainly the film will get an A for effort here but for all its charm it lacks a certain something, perhaps not having anyone else other than Olive as relatable, or maybe it is just the tone of Emma Stone’s voice that mellows the otherwise fun story out.