BA_Harrison Pretty Persuasion stars Evan Rachel Wood as Kimberly Joyce, a very intelligent yet extremely cynical 15-year-old psychopath, the product of bad parenting (James Woods as her father is despicable yet hilarious) and an over-privileged lifestyle, who mercilessly manipulates her friends and exploits her burgeoning sex appeal in any way necessary to achieve her ambition to become an actress (whilst simultaneously exacting revenge on those who she believes have wronged her), eventually accusing her English teacher Mr. Anderson of sexual assault (it's hard to feel sorry for him, though: as frustrating as it must be to be surrounded by cock-teasing jail-bait all day long, he does get to go home in the evening and act out his fantasies with his hot-to-trot wife, played by Selma Blair).Darkly humorous, deliciously quirky, deeply satirical, and thoroughly perverted, this is a surprisingly daring tale requiring a certain degree of bravado from all involved, including the viewer. The easily outraged need not bother watching: there is plenty of swearing and lots of sexual activity, particularly from Evan Rachel Wood whose morally vacuous character engages in all manner of deviant behaviour, including taking it up the poop-chute, and the giving and receiving of oral pleasure with both sexes (non-explicit, of course, but fairly shocking all the same given Kimberley's tender age).As a fan of uncompromising cinema, I found Pretty Persuasion both thoroughly engaging and pleasantly unpredictable, the kind of film genuinely deserving of those oft-used labels 'quirky', 'witty', and 'off-beat'; you could do worse than to give this movie a permanent place on your DVD shelf, filed alongside Mean Girls, Cruel Intentions, To Die For, Wild Things and Heathers.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

reidy-christopher While I watched "Pretty Persuasion" I couldn't help but sit there and catalog all the movies it was trying to be. "Heathers" came to mind first, then "Election", then "Cruel Intentions", then "To Die For" and even, "Pretty Poison", which I've never seen, but have read about (and that one came out about forty years ago). Yes, I'll admit by now that this Teen-Age-Badgirl-Master-Manipulator idea is officially a genre, and going into "Pretty Persuasion" you kind of accept that it is going to tread familiar ground...but seriously...so familiar you can't but sit there and consciously think about those other, better films? Every caustic, nasty bit of dialog that came out of Evan Rachel Wood's mouth just crashed to the floor of the set and laid there. It wasn't shocking. It was shockingly bad. And sophomoric. I remember when I first saw "Heathers" at the movies in 1989. I remember that experience because it literally was shocking. I was actually shocked by it. But delighted too. Because it was so original and yes, witty, it made it enjoyable and that was even all the more shocking. This movie tries to do the same thing but fails miserably. It fails because, A.) It was all ready done twenty years ago and B.) It was grade school level humor at best. Seriously, it was embarrassing. James Wood's made a complete fool of himself. I've never liked him anyway, but here he confuses acting disgusting with actually being disgusting, which seems to be a problem he shares with the filmmakers. Every single character in the movie is a cretin. No one has a sense of humor, let alone a wicked one. The only appealing character is the one played by Jane Krakowski, but she isn't given much to do in a subplot that goes nowhere. Most of the actors were very good, but again, in the service of characters you actually despise, what is the point? There's no one to route for here, even in an anti-hero kind of way. The filmmakers must've sensed this on some unconscious level, because the film veers into straight melodrama in the last half hour or so, which makes the questionable idea of viewing the movie even more disturbing. There's also a sort of anti-Americanism going on. There's this Arab teen girl character who is the butt of jokes and then ends up blowing her brains out in some weird bid for audience sympathy. Is the writer an Arab? He seems to hate the U.S. Of course we're all shallow, psychopathic, materialistic, morally bankrupt miscreants, yeah, I know, we get it, but that doesn't keep the Arab family from making a bee-line to Beverly Hills. Kind of a mixed message, huh? How about Poughkipsie? I get the feeling this film got made because someone (from Arabia maybe?)had deep enough pockets to drop a huge bag of money on some movie executive's desk and say "Make my kid's movie." I say this because the whole thing reeks of "vanity project". What person in Hollywood read the script and thought, "Oh, yeah, a sub-par rip-off of "Heathers"! Let's do it!" But apparently that bag of money was big enough to attract top acting talent and above the line contributors. Which is why this gets three stars. The photography was excellent. The Director of Photography knew where to put the camera. At least he knew what he was doing.

TwoCrude Spoilers within.I have to add my review of this film, as it runs so counter to the vast majority of the posts. I'll digress for a moment.I remember fighting through two of Shakespeare's comedies in 9th grade. A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It. The iambic pentameter most certainly did not jump off the page. I complained to my teacher that the jokes seemed to be lacking, at least to my 13 year old sensibilities. He told me to reread the plays. Later that year, we watched a film of "Midsummer". The dialogue crackled with life and the almost 400 year old work made all of us smile and discuss the keen ear the Bard had. I saw it as the classic it is.Assuredly, this movie is NOT Shakespeare. Nor is it "Heathers", "She's All That", or even "Disturbing Behavior". It's not even "10 Things I Hate About You" (I know, 10 Things is just "Taming of the Shrew" with a good soundtrack). The films I've just listed had fairly well written scripts. Pretty Persuasion is not funny. It's nowhere in the vicinity of funny. It's a few states over, like the distance from Arizona to western Maryland. The directing of "Persuasion" is unremarkable. As are most of the performances. Wood is good in the unredeemable bitch role, I admit. Her performance wasn't worth the movie's screen time, however.When the Palestinian girl killed herself, I shook my head, wishing fervently that I'd walked out of the theater much earlier in this misbegotten film. Maybe the theater manager would have refunded my money.Rent "Cruel Intentions" instead, or any of the other movies that I mentioned.

futures-1 I've liked every effort I've seen by young actress Evan Rachel Wood ("13" being a stellar example, and "Missing" being another). This is no exception. "Pretty Persuasion" is akin to "Election" (Reese Witherspoon) for the first half, with a dark, witty sense of humor about high school aged people playing mental "chess" with each other, their teachers, and parents. Slowly the story morphs darker, into something like "To Die For" (Nicole Kidman), with a media-made, fame-driven main character willing to do whatever it takes to reach a twisted idea of recognition and advancement. THIS would be enough for the film to be interesting and well done within its own right, but then it goes further. Further. This film is billed as a comedy. If it is, it is not for long… a) if you watch the entire thing, and b) you pay attention. I was expecting a good film. I received even more.