- Home
- Cinemascope News:
- This Week's Reviews:
- Cinemascope Five:
- Contact Cinemascope
Submitted by cinemascope on Fri, 2006-06-23 16:12. :: Contemporary
Movie title:
Pretty Persuasion
Starring:
Evan Rachel Wood, James Woods, Jane Krakowski, Jaime King
Directed by:
Marcos Siega
Written by:
Skander Halim
Genre:
Comedy/Drama
Year:
2006
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Runtime:
110 minutes
Imdb:
Rating:
Synopsis
15-year-old Kimberley Joyce incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.
15-year-old Kimberley Joyce incites chaos among her friends and a media frenzy when she accuses her drama teacher of sexual harassment.
Review
As a critic, you always want to cut some slack to first-time writers and directors, and I tried, really I did… but this is awful. A script that tries (very hard) to be both funny and clever and achieves neither, it also more worryingly tries to be controversial and thought-provoking and only descends into being borderline offensive. James Woods must have been drawn to the controversial elements in the script, but plays a racist who very awkwardly is positioned within the film as character that we’re clearly meant to be amused by, despite his utterly obnoxious racism and misogyny. An arab family is stereotyped in the worst possible way, and the attempt to address sexual harassment falls horribly flat and achieves nothing. Evan Rachel Wood is tolerable, but a young actress deserves better. The film has an 18 certificate mainly for its gratuitous use of the c-word.
As a critic, you always want to cut some slack to first-time writers and directors, and I tried, really I did… but this is awful. A script that tries (very hard) to be both funny and clever and achieves neither, it also more worryingly tries to be controversial and thought-provoking and only descends into being borderline offensive. James Woods must have been drawn to the controversial elements in the script, but plays a racist who very awkwardly is positioned within the film as character that we’re clearly meant to be amused by, despite his utterly obnoxious racism and misogyny. An arab family is stereotyped in the worst possible way, and the attempt to address sexual harassment falls horribly flat and achieves nothing. Evan Rachel Wood is tolerable, but a young actress deserves better. The film has an 18 certificate mainly for its gratuitous use of the c-word.
