So this is a very modern take on The Scarlet Letter, the classic novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Our heroine is a pretty girl in high school who lives under the radar getting on with her life until she is one day, whilst in the bathroom, sarcastically telling her friend of a supposed escapade she had over the weekend. Her girlfriend who is none too bright doesn’t get the tone of her friend’s monologue and assumes it is all true. Not only that but the class goody two shoes is in one of the stalls and hears the entire conversation. News spreads like wildfire in high school, especially juicy news. In one day she goes from being completely unknown to a popular but morally loose girl. One of her teachers, played by Thomas Haden Church, is concerned about her taking on the role a little too seriously especially when she starts wearing a red A on her clothing.
Her parents are fabulous and inject enough humour as well as concern to make them not only believable but also extremely likable. There is the typical break up of a friendship due to misunderstanding, a boy who really does like her and the emptiness that goes with not being liked for who she really is when she comes up with a great idea. Start a video blog explaining how it all went wrong. The film moves quickly and has enough in it to make it not just a teen movie. There is a whole other story line involving the ‘good’ girl and her church group that meets regularly on campus and prays for the other students whilst simultaneously assassinating their characters which brings us full circle to the Scarlet Letter and its puritanical ways. How hard it is to walk the walk and talk the talk especially when it is so much fun dishing on others.
