Facing the ugly truth

Kimberley (Evan Rachel Wood) is a pretty and unprincipled 15-year-old who vamps her way though high school. Her methods are simple but still sophisticated, whether enslaving her smitten English teacher or annoying her eccentric, anti-Semitic father (James Woods at his best).

She has an answer, often obscene, for every situation, and actual sex is part of the equation, too. Wood gives an extraordinary central performance. She makes Kimberley as tough as nails, though seemingly as soft as butter.

You believe it when she says: "It's like the world's this orchestra and I'm the conductor."

It's not as well structured or ultimately as convincing as Election and Heathers, two movies which turned the high school comedy drama upside down. There is also a certain shallowness about it, chiefly exemplified by an appalling caricature of the dumbstruck and hajib-wearing Muslim girl who follows Kimberley around like a slave. Its final image of our anti-heroine watching herself on television with tears of contrition coursing down her face isn't too convincing.

We are meant to think that a corrupt and degenerate society is the real cause of her rebellion. But I'm not sure I buy that. Some people are just plain nasty, even if they think their family has made them that way.

Pretty Persuasion
Cert: 18