Movie Review: Pretty Persuasion (2005)

Genre: High School Satire  

Director: Marcos Siega  

Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Ron Livingston, James Woods, Selma Blair  

Running Time: 109 minutes  

Synopsis: At a posh Beverly Hills high school, 15-year-old Kimberly (Evan Rachel Wood) aspires to become an actress, but remains sore that her best friend Brittany apparently stole her boyfriend. Kimberly helps new Muslim student Randa adapt to her surroundings, and they navigate around English teacher Mr. Anderson (Ron Livingston), who has a reputation as a molester. Meanwhile, Kimberly's unpleasant home life is dominated by her father Hank (James Woods), a loud-mouthed racist. A school production of the Diary of Anne Frank provides Kimberly an opportunity to achieve multiple objectives.

What Works Well: This snarky high school satire takes aim at multiple targets, and often succeeds with cold-eyed efficiency. Lecherous teachers, catty best friends, self-obsessed wealthy parents, vacuous boyfriends, trophy third wives, attention-seeking journalists, sex-as-a-weapon, and showtime lawyers are all on the agenda. Evan Rachel Wood excels as the psychotically calculating calm in the middle of the storm, Kimberly's genius manipulations revealed with deliberate pacing through well-crafted flashbacks.

What Does Not Work As Well: The tone oscillates sometimes wildly between humorous, hurtful, and plain crude, before veering towards too-dark territory in the final act. 

Key Quote:

Kimberly: So, Brittany, this is Randa. Randa's from the Middle East, but she's really sweet. She doesn't say much, though.

Brittany: Hi! I know all about the immigrant experience, how hard it can be - I'm Canadian.

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