Emma Stone's the best reason to see 'Easy A'

The high school sex comedy "Easy A" takes its scarlet letter plot from Hawthorne, but it's all about Emma Stone.

The young star, who's been on the periphery of funny comedies like "Zombieland" and "Superbad," gets a chance to sparkle as the centerpiece of "Easy A."

The performance is a gem, though it's not exactly in a platinum setting - "Easy A" is an arch, preciously written (there are characters named Rosemary and Dill) story about a teen who pretends to be a "super-slut" to help classmates with various sexual anxieties.

Stone is Olive, a smart and spunky girl whose big brain and unadvertised sexuality keep her in the margins of the social scene (shades of Lindsay Lohan in "Mean Girls").

That all changes when her daffy blonde BFF (Aly Michalka) pressures her to go on a nightmare camping trip, and Olive demurs by claiming to have a date with a college boy, a little white lie that leads to a white-hot rumor that Olive has lost her virginity.

It's a school scandal, though one that makes you wonder if "Easy A" isn't straining a bit to import "The Scarlet Letter" to the 21st century - a sexually active high school girl is a pariah? In Afghanistan, maybe.

In any case, Olive takes her new tart brand and runs with it, building an underground business around boys who pay a fee (TJ Maxx gift cards) for the right to claim they've had sex with her.

This premise (and it's far-fetched consequences) is obviously meant to be farce, and the movie is not meant to be taken seriously.

Nonetheless, it's hard to look upon "Easy A" as an adult and not be horrified by its idea of "cool" parenting - Olive's aggressively hip parents (Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson) are way too supportive of her apparent change in behavior, and offer way too much information about their own teen sexploits.

And though the movie's Christian-bashing (Olive is tormented by self-righteously religious Amanda Bynes), is an outgrowth of the Hawthorne plot schematic, it's a little shrill.

"Easy A" would be a very easy movie to dislike, if Stone weren't so easy to like.

Produced by Will Gluck, Zanne Devine; directed by Will Gluck; written by Bert V. Royal; music by Brad Segel, distributed by Screen Gems.