Ugly plot to advance teen's life in 'Pretty Persuasion'

Another high school vixen movie, this one with a potty mouth (the vixen) and pretensions of social commentary (the movie), Pretty Persuasion brings to mind a number of other titles, all better. Poison Ivy, Clueless, Election, To Die For, even David Mamet's Oleanna get thrown in the blender, churning out a plot about a ruthless teen (Evan Rachel Wood), her two friends (Elisabeth Harnois, Adi Schnall), and accusations of sexual harassment on the part of their teacher (Ron Livingston).

Set in a fancy Beverly Hills prep school and the fancy Beverly Hills manses of its students, Pretty Persuasion follows Wood's Kimberly Joyce on a scorched-earth operation that involves lying to and seducing friends and foe, male and female, all for the purpose of advancing her career.

And what career does a high schooler want, you ask? To be a famous actress, of course.

Director Marcos Siega, whose Underclassman also opens in theaters today, puts a satiric gloss on the smarm, but it's still smarm. James Woods is a cartoonish (and unfunny) joke as Kimberly's bigoted, cynical, rich-guy-with-a-trophy-wife dad, and Jane Krakowski does a turn as a TV journalist who thinks she's on to a big story - and who finds herself in bed, literally, with her subject, Kimberly.

Pretty Persuasion leaves 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.

Contact movie critic Steven Rea

at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.

Pretty Persuasion

* 1/2 (out of four stars)

Written by Skander Halim, directed by Marcos Siega. With Evan Rachel Wood, Elisabeth Harnois, Ron Livingston, Jane Krakowski and James Woods.

Running time: 1 hour, 44 mins.

Parent's guide: No MPAA rating (sexual content, profanity, adult themes)

Playing at: Ritz at the Bourse and Ritz Sixteen/NJ.