45
Metascore
29 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80L.A. WeeklyElla TaylorL.A. WeeklyElla TaylorThis is a very funny film about a creepy, excruciatingly lonely world.
- 80The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenAn obscene, misanthropic go-for-broke satire, Pretty Persuasion is so gleefully nasty that the fact that it was even made and released is astonishing. Much of it is also extremely funny.
- 70Los Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoLos Angeles TimesCarina ChocanoIt's too bad that the satire is not more pointed, because Pretty Persuasion is outrageously funny in short blasts, mainly thanks to James Woods at his most gleefully depraved.
- 60The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinIn a star-making performance, Evan Rachel Wood stars as essentially a younger version of Nicole Kidman's media-age femme fatale from "To Die For," an aspiring 15-year-old actress who hides a sharp, calculating mind behind a façade of vapid, chattering self-absorption.
- 50Film ThreatFilm ThreatKills itself with unrestrained negativism, but almost resuscitates itself with some great comedy.
- 50New York PostLou LumenickNew York PostLou LumenickSo exploitative and misogynistic that its last-minute dramatic turns and pleas for tolerance and understanding come off as manipulative as its heroine.
- 40VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyAn exercise in bad taste that takes itself just seriously enough to be offensive.
- 40Village VoiceBen KenigsbergVillage VoiceBen KenigsbergA high school send-up more gleefully incorrect than "Heathers" and considerably less articulate than "Election," Pretty Persuasion is a hand grenade lobbed at no place in particular.
- 30TV Guide MagazineKen FoxTV Guide MagazineKen FoxMost of Halim's script is a laundry list of offensive remarks that he no doubt means to serve as titillating spoof, but none of it's funny or even the least bit provocative, just offensive.
- 16Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumThe movie wants so badly to be mentioned in the same breath as "Heathers" or "Election" that it's not even funny. Really, I mean it, this charred-black comedy is not even funny.