Good writing aside, this screenplay contained the elements of two different films. One of them might have been quite persuasive.
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09/23/05
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Pretty Persuasion (2005)
15
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:27
Fresh:4
Rotten:23
Average Rating:4.4/10
Consensus: Pretty Persuasion aims for high satire but falls short of poignancy by depending on too much black humor, with too little redeeming humanity to provide balance.
Theatrical Release:Aug 12, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $58,570
Synopsis: Music-video director Marcos Siega infuses this entertainingly dark social satire with stylish camerawork and clever editing. While visually rooted in the bubble gum teen comedy aesthetic, PRETTY... [More]
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Ron Livingston, James Woods, Jane Krakowski
Director: Marcos Siega
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Reviews for Pretty Persuasion
Top CriticExtremely well written in the fearless way of a smarty pants on a roll in the university cafeteria.
09/23/05
Top CriticClick to read the article
09/03/05
Top CriticThe screenplay by Skander Halim falters. It's too convoluted and cloudy to have the intended effect.
09/02/05
Top CriticSelf-conscious, overdone, shallow, and just not up to the level of its star.
09/02/05
Top CriticLeaves no gender, race, class or religion untouched in its scabrous effort to show how cruel humans can be. But it also leaves viewers with no one at all to like, or believe.
09/01/05
Top CriticThe movie shifts tones as abruptly as a teenager's mood swings.
09/01/05
Top CriticReminds me of a half-hour TV series that has a great pilot episode, then falls apart in subsequent installments.
08/31/05
Top CriticIt’s so smug about it and pleased with itself.
08/29/05
Top CriticClick to read the article
08/27/05
Top CriticPretty Persuasion considers itself snarky black comedy, one of those self-consciously 'outrageous' artifacts that means to shock even as it amuses.
08/26/05
Top CriticPartly a character study, partly a monster movie (with the girl as the monster) and partly a satire of American values in the modern age, the film is also, alas, only partly successful.
08/26/05
Top CriticPretty Persuasion is a nasty piece of work. Yet it offers some unvarnished and amusing thoughts about American contradictions.
08/26/05
Top CriticUnlike Heathers and Election -- both brilliant satires because they exaggerate reality, magnify and darken the truth -- Pretty Persuasion is not funny because it's not true.
08/25/05
Top CriticPopulated by characters that are either over-the-top cartoonish or drawn with all the depth of stick figures, there is only one reason to watch this latest entry in the high-school-as-Dante's-ring genre -- Evan Rachel Wood.
08/25/05
Top CriticThe material in Pretty Persuasion needed to be handled as heavy drama, or played completely for comedy, and by trying to have it both ways, the movie has it neither way.
08/25/05
Top CriticWood does flip cynicism with such precise, easy rhythms and with such obvious pleasure in naughtiness that she’s impossible to hate.
08/22/05
Top CriticPretty Persuasion is so exploitative and misogynistic that its last-minute dramatic turns and pleas for tolerance and understanding come off as manipulative as its heroine.
08/12/05
Top CriticPretty Persuasion sets out to be a social critique but settles for smug disdain.
08/12/05
Top CriticToo flip to be serious and too smug to be rousing.
08/11/05
Top CriticLatest News for Pretty Persuasion
November 30, 2005:
In "Theory," Reynolds, Mortimer & Townsend Will Co-Star
Ryan Reynolds, Stuart Townsend, and Emily Mortimer will star in "Chaos Theory," says The Hollywood Reporter. The comedy is coming from "Pretty Persuasion"... More...
October 06, 2005:
Summer Tomatometer Wrap-up #4: The Worst of the Summer
Over the past few days, we've tried to counter the common misconception that this summer's cinematic fare was bereft of quality. However, that doesn't mean the season was... More...
September 19, 2005:
Ryan Reynolds and Marcos Siega to Test the "Chaos Theory"
Variety reports that actor Ryan Reynolds and "Pretty Persuasion" director Marcos Siega will be bringing the comedy "Chaos Theory" to life, by way of Castle... More...
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