Film Reviews

Pretty Persuasion

• Rating:
• Director: Marcos Siega
• Starring: Evan Rachel Wood
• Details: US, 110mins, 16.

Flirty Beverly Hills exclusive private school student Kimberly Joyce (Wood) convinces her friends Brittany (Elisabeth Harnois) and Randa (Adi Schnall) in bringing charges of sexual assault against their English and drama teacher Percy Anderson (Livingston).Kimberly's bigoted father Hank (Woods) is only concerned with the effect the scandal will have on his business while an ambitious reporter hopes the story will turn her into a celebrity.
If Wood is not careful she maybe typecast as the bitchy high school teenager forever but, since she does it so well, no one will complain. Thirteen and Down In The Valley showed what Wood could do but it is in Pretty Persuasion where her talents have come to fruition. Almost in every scene, Wood is flawless and carries the film on her young shoulders; her racial comments and self-obsessive pontificating veer from the darkly comic to the outlandish. Where it falls down is when director Siega can't decide what is the focus of the film - is it the power children have over adults or is the cynicism at the heart of the American teenager? Siega has also a habit of taking the viewer by the hand and explaining everything that happens and why it happens, which doesn't leave a lot to the imagination. But with brainless school 'dramas' chalking up box office glory and movies like Brick slip by unnoticed, who could blame him?

Review by Gavin Burke