Pretty Persuasion Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

Pretty Persuasion

If ever there was a successor to black as night high school satire Heathers then this is it. It has super smart, super malevolent, 15 year old Kimberly Joyce (Evan Rachel Wood) and two of her friends frame their English techer fro sexual harrasment. The script is biting and gives everyone at least a few big laughs.

Evan Rachel Wood is possibly the best young actress on screen right now. Since Thirteen announced her as a major talent she's done interesting work and always given a compelling performance, Pretty Persuasion is no exception. As Kimberly Joyce ('The devil in a grey skirt') playing, by turns, the wronged innocent and one of the more memorable Femmes fatale of recent times. It may be her best performance to date (though Thirteen runs it close) if only because when Wood says 'It's like this whole world's the orchestra and I'm the conductor' you believe she could be.

There's a clutch of excellent supporting turns, most notably from James Woods who slimes his way through the film, chomping scenery as Kimberly's racist layabout of a father and nabbing some of the very best lines. Jane Krakowski, late of Ally McBeal, shows up as a lesbian tv reporter covering Kimberly's case, who Kimberly seduces for her own ends,. Krakowski was the only worthwhile thing about the remake of Alfie and again here suggests that there's more to her than Ally McBeal ever let her show.

Okay so there's a few rough edges and if you don't know Kimberly's motives 10 minutes in, well, I hope you enjoyed the first film you've ever seen but for the most part this mix of ingredients from sources like Heathers, The Last Seduction and Mean Girls is tremendously entertaining and irresistibly funny.

Either love it or hate it

Got this after reading a couple of reviews and didn’t really know what to expect. Its definitely one of those films you either love or hate and I thought it was one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. Laugh out loud funny in some places and some pretty amazing acting, especially from Evan Rachel Wood and James Woods.