Pretty Persuasion (2005)

Pretty Persuasion is near perfect. One has to go back to the cult classic, Heathers, to find a teen comedy that also functions as a satire. The movie is that good. From the blunt social commentary to the high caliber acting and the tight script, Pretty Persuasion is the best film of last year that nobody saw.

Evan Rachel Wood plays Kimberly Joyce, a high school student at an elite prep school in Beverly Hills. She and her friends Randa (Adi Schnall) and Brittany (Elizabeth Harnois) falsely accuse a school teacher (Ron Livingston) of sexual harassment in an attempt to gain media attention through notoriety. The film is structured around the trial, where Kimberly and her friends take the stand and lie, then uses flashbacks to tell the truth.

A warning though, the movie has a prerequisite: thick skin. Many critics are offended because of its social remarks on such subjects as race and sexual orientation. Pretty Persuasion pulls no punches.

One character, Kimberly’s dad, performed by the brilliant James Woods is quite simply a racist. In particular, he has a strong hatred for Jews and defends his anti-Semitic statements as truth rather than bigotry. James Woods gives such an over-the-top performance that the character seems more like a caricature of a racist than actual racist.

The film depends mostly on Kimberly Joyce as well as the actress portraying her. Kimberly is smart, attractive and evil; “the devil wears a gray skirt and her name is Kimberly Joyce,” one supporting character says. Evan Rachel Wood is solid and never misses a beat. Nearly every line she delivers evokes some hidden malevolence to it.

Not to say that Kimberly Joyce is all evil. The scriptwriter, Skander Halim and Director Marcos Siega make sure to give her a basis to her wickedness. Even though Kimberly lives a life of wealth and privilege, she also comes from a broken family. Her feelings are ignored by both her racist father and her absent mother. In a brief scene, where she’s talking to her mother on her cell phone, her mother even forgets how old she is.

The story takes a turn towards tragedy when SPOILER one of Kimberly’s friends commits suicide.

This is where the film makes a minor misstep. Many of the film’s detractors (which there are many) say by ending the film with a tragic death and thus making it both a comedy and drama is overreaching its limits. One can call it pretentious or ambitious. I call it the latter.

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