My attention towards this movie was first caught in a review written in "Video Business Magazine" that said that Pretty Pesuasion was a movie that we would get if John Waters had directed Heathers. They also compared it to another one of my all time favorite comedies, Election. So when I saw this available on DVD for rental, I picked it up (and it was a free rental, thankfully.)

What would I compare this movie to? Perhaps a little of Wild Things meets Mean Girls meets a train wreck. It's hardly a break through role for Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen did that for her nicely, thanks) and the rest of the cast just meanders about on screen aimlessly, as if waiting for some competent direction Marcos Siega, but Marcos doesn't succeed in the transition from music video/tv episode director to movie director very well. If this movie had been shortened to an hour long pilot for a TV show, it would have worked so much better. However, as a feature length movie, it's too long.

James Woods is quite interesting in his role as Hank Joyce, but his character, like so many others in the movie, are not fleshed out enough for me to care about them. I hardly even care for Evan Rachel Wood's character, but am I supposed to? She is a horror of a human in this movie, and the most sympathy I feel is for the characters around her, particularly in the characters of Britney and especially Randa.

It's listed as a comedy, but there are too many depressing things in this movie to make it even a good black comedy. I won't go into too much in my review, as I don't want to write any spoilers, but one scene in particular towards the end (and if you have seen it, you should know what I am talking about) is devastating, and for what little laughs were in the film, it makes you forget any "comedy" you saw before then.