Pretty Persuasion on DVD (2005)

SAI81 from Tonbridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 26/06/2006

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.

  16 out of 16 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Monkton, Wales , 10/12/2005

I’ve heard this compared to HEATHERS and DANGEROUS LIASONS and ELECTION, and I think any comparison sells the film short. It’s original and ferocious and shocking, and it made me laugh out loud in several places at the sheer audacity it took to put some of these scenes onscreen. I applaud anyone who demonstrates a knack for dark comedy, and director Marcos Siega and screenwriter Skander Halim certainly do.

  14 out of 15 people found this review helpful

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PeterSays from Romsey [Highly rated reviewer] , 22/11/2006

Having really enjoyed Clueless and thinking Legally Blonde was alright, I thought I'd give this one a go. It is much darker, with a non-Hollywood style pessimistic ending, and the humour is more crude compared to the wit of Clueless. Nevertheless, this is a funny film. I particularly enjoyed the writing style of the script, though this may mean i need to get out more. The references to Iraq and Palestine were interesting and I liked the observations on sexual politics: it makes buffoons of us all.

  8 out of 9 people found this review helpful

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Jack Sewell from Midlands, UK [Highly rated reviewer] , 29/11/2006

A comedy that is blacker than coffee, sharper than a pencil and as fresh as a daisy. Evan Rachel Wood is ashtonishing as the unpleasant leading lady, you want to hate her so much, yet you must admire her evilness. Complulsive viewing.

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

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Jack Sewell from Midlands, UK [Highly rated reviewer] , 29/11/2006

A comedy that is blacker than coffee, sharper than a pencil and as fresh as a daisy. Evan Rachel Wood is ashtonishing as the unpleasant leading lady, you want to hate her so much, yet you must admire her evilness. Complulsive viewing.

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

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granita from Farnham [Highly rated reviewer] , 10/02/2007

Ewan Rachel Wood gets full marks from me for her role of the wicked, manipulating slut of a schoolgirl. But her diction is atrocious, making it almost impossible to understand what she is saying. However, it is a brave and shocking film, a black comedy that is presumably meant as an indictment of morals in American High schools today. James Woods, as Evan Rachel's foul-mouthed, disgusting, racist father, is utterly outrageous. In it's own way, it's a kind of Borat experience. The only difference for me was that it didn't actually make me laugh. It's extremely clever, though, and definitely worth seeing.

  4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

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