"Pretty Persuasion" is more outrageous than the combined monologues of Ricky Gervais on the Golden Globes Awards.
The people who will definitely get their money's worth out of this film are the easily offended; for them there is something to offend every couple of minutes.
A number of critics felt the film "...hovered uncomfortably between comedy and satire..." but who cares about genre when it's this funny.
I loved it.
Despite the high school setting - elite Roxbury Academy in Beverly Hills - it's not another "Clueless" or "Mean Girls". It possesses more the anarchic spirit of "God Bless America".
The script is clever; perception is a key motif throughout, and the way the film revisits earlier scenes to show what really happened is inspired.
Although Evan Rachel Wood's character, Kimberly Joyce, seems interested in the well-being of others, she really has no filter; manipulation and passive aggressiveness are built into her DNA. Although she blatantly parades her hypocrisy, she also exposes it in just about everyone around her - often hilariously. In the end though, vulnerabilities are exposed.
When she befriends a quiet, Middle Eastern student, Kimberly's cynical views on migrants, race, religion, sex and just about everything else come to the fore - nothing is sacred. However one commentator nailed it when he said that Kimberly does all this with such obvious pleasure in naughtiness that she's impossible to hate.
The film has an original score by Gilad Benamram. It's light and chilled, and acts as a dispassionate commentator as events unfold.
Evan Rachel Wood's performance is mesmerizing, However, I have one criticism, as others have noted, she slurs her words and speaks so fast it's sometimes hard to understand her. I found myself straining to catch the dialogue, but I didn't want to miss a word because I was enjoying it so much.
"Pretty Persuasion" is fifteen years old now, but has lost none of its bite. Forget the negative comments. This one will have you on the edge of your seat waiting for Kimberly to reveal the next nugget of political incorrectness.
