This movie is hilarious but it really fits with the Scarlet Letter. The spin on it is that she's faking the entire time. Olive is getting paid to take guys' 'virginity'. But it's all a ruse. Throughout the movie you really can see how Hester might have felt when she got rejected because of her affair. The group of Christians keep praying for Olive. However in the story, Hester just seems to get rejected by the people. Other then the minister you really don't hear of anyone praying for her to be saved. Not even her little girl gets prayers. She gets rejected and called mean names.
I love the twist they put on the movie to make it fit with the modern times. Having children out of wedlock is so common now that it doesn't have much impact like it did with Hester. More or less the A for Olive stood for her sleeping around a lot. or in other words, it was because they were labeling her as a slut. They didn't know the truth until they end. In both story and movie, the story came out in the end.
I have not seen this movie, but the preview looks hilarious. In some ways it looks like the movie Sordid Lives. Everyone lives in this small town where everyone knows everyone. When a well known grandmother from the town dies having sex with a married man, the town freaks out and thinks the worst of her...especially since she was a prominent member of the church. Shenanigans ensue, but in the end we find out that grandma had a brain tumor that was pressing on the part of the brain that controls sexual hormones.
ReplyDeleteAs you said, though, I think that in modern day it is almost the norm to have a child out of wedlock. Even using the term "slut" and "whore" for a woman who is promiscuous seems so Hester Prynn. It is that same attitude that exists toward women today that led to them branding Hester with the scarlet letter in the seventeenth century. Female sexuality, while it has made some strides, is still suppressed in the minds of so many women, when it is something that should be embraced.
I did watch this movie, mainly because i love Emma Stone! I actually watched it way before i ever read The Scarlet Letter. It does a very decent job or portraying the rejection of Hester. Times today are not so different from the times back in Hester's day. Everything changes, but nothing changes. People still judge and reject. Same thing, different time. For someone who is not into classic literature, this would be a good movie to kind of get an idea of what The Scarlet Letter is all about.
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