Pretty Persuasion

Fails to deliver the dark satire on American privilege, prejudice and depravity that it aspires to.

Film Review by Nick Mitchell | 15 Jul 2006
Film title: Pretty Persuasion
Director: Marcos Siega
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Elisabeth Harnois, Adi Schnall, James Woods
Release date: June 23
Certificate: 18

Fresh from her turn in 'Down in the Valley', rising starlet Evan Rachel Wood does teenage ice queen in this Californian morality tale about a clique of nasty schoolgirls who accuse their drama teacher of sexual harassment in an effort to jump-start their acting careers. The film starts promisingly with the horribly self-assured Kimberley (Wood) showing impressionable new Muslim student Randa (Schnall) around the exclusive LA private school where the story unfolds, but director Siega ultimately fails to deliver the dark satire on American privilege, prejudice and depravity that his film aspires to be. Borrowing liberally from countless previous teen bitch-flicks, and supplementing this with a strain of black humour that worked so well in 'American Beauty', 'Pretty Persuasion' is finally defeated by its complete lack of humanity, crystallised in the normally excellent James Woods' performance as Kimberley's father, a foul-mouthed, pill-popping, maniacal caricature of American excess. [Nick Mitchell]

http://www.prettypersuasionthemovie.com/