Pretty Persuasion (2005)

Director:

Marcos Siega

Writer:

Skander Halim (written by)

Release Date:

25 May 2006 (South Africa)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Evil comes in a school uniform.

Plot:

A 15-year-old girl incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.

Plot Keywords:

Teacher | Sexual Harassment | Drama Teacher | High School | Accusation

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Evan Rachel Wood	...	Kimberly Joyce
David Wagner	...	Morgan (as David T. Wagner)
Brent Goldberg	...	Rick
Adi Schnall	...	Randa
Elisabeth Harnois	...	Brittany
Stark Sands	...	Troy
Jane Krakowski	...	Emily Klein
Michael Hitchcock	...	Headmaster Charles Meyer
Danny Comden	...	Roger Nicholl
Jaime King	...	Kathy Joyce
Josh Zuckerman	...	Josh Horowitz
James Snyder	...	Dave
Ron Livingston	...	Percy Anderson
Cody McMains	...	Kenny
Mike Erwin	...	Barry

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content and graphic dialogue involving teens, and language.

Runtime:

USA:104 min | UK:110 min | Argentina:107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Australia:MA | UK:18 | Ireland:16 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Singapore:M18 | Finland:K-15 | Argentina:16 | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/16

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

REN-Mar Studios

Trivia:

Christopher Meloni's character of Russel, Emily's editor/boss was cut from the film. He still receives a 'special thanks' credit.

Quotes:

Kimberly Joyce: Randa, what's the greatest thing about this country?
Randa: Sylvester Stallone?
Kimberly Joyce: No. It's that anybody can sue anybody at anytime over anything.
Randa: You wanna sue Mr. Anderson?
Kimberly Joyce: I suppose that it might jump-start me and Brittany's acting careers.

Movie Connections:

References "South Park" (1997)

Soundtrack:

Stiffed

The Lindsay Lohan vs. Hilary Duff biography

OK, that was a lame joke, but it's exactly what I thought of when I finished watching Pretty Persuasion. After touring Hollywood Video going around in circles a million times, a cute guy that I just had to flirt with recommended Pretty Persuasion and said that it was a huge recommendation. Well, I had to look cute and like I was interested, so I rented it, I watched it this morning just expecting a good movie, but I have to say that this was a good recommendation, because it was a great movie. I just love dark comedies, even if they push the edge, this was just a meaner version of Mean Girls, in my opinion it's a mixed version of Mean Girls and Cruel Intentions to sum it up. Pretty Persuasion is a great film with good acting, a twisted story, and has some of the funniest dark scenes I have seen in a while, James Woods was the show stealer for me, but the whole cast did a fantastic job pulling the story together well.

Kimberly Joyce is a student at high class Beverly Hills High School, she has two friends, pretty and popular Britney, and a new Arab student, Randa. Kimberly and Britney want to be actresses and just live the high life. Kimberly's family life isn't all glam though with her gold digging step mother and neglectful, racist, alcoholic father who is all about image. But the girls take a giant leap in accusing their English teacher of sexual harassment to get famous. Or at least that's the motive that Kimberly has led the girls to believe.

Pretty Persuasion is a great dark comedy, I don't think it's for everyone though, it is flawed in some ways. Some of the messages are sent the wrong way and the direction was just alright, but I thought it ended brilliantly and for some sick reason I really liked Kimberly's sadistic side, her way of stabbing people with a smile on her face, she was wicked, but so cool in the way she did everything. The best performance besides Wood was James Woods, he was just dead on with his character and as much of a jerk as his character was, he was in some sick way still likable. I don't know why, I knew I was supposed to hate a lot of these characters, but I found them to be so human a the bored rich people who have nothing better to do than complain. I would recommend Pretty Persuasion, if you like dark comedies, this is right up your alley.

8/10