Monday 3 November 2014

The Pretty One Review

The Pretty One SuperQuick Review

My Rating: 9/10

Spoilers in this one

"While glancing at some of the other online reviews of this film I was taken aback by the mass negativity. This was something I came across after watching it to the end. So with my own opinion in tact I left this film feeling positively overwhelmed. It does well to throw in almost every human emotion you can imagine in there with a bunch of believable and relatable characters.

It begins with twin sisters. One, an introvert (Laurel) at home with her dad, living in the shadow of her lost mother. The other an extrovert (Audrey) with a pretty successful life away from home and experience with work and relationships. Their love for each other is strong and Audrey wishes the best for Laurel, offering to let her move in with her (To the big city!). But, as revealed in the trailer, Audrey goes and dies.
It's a tricky idea to pull off, aaaand a lot of people say they didn't pull it off.
Due to a mixture of confusion, mourning, a desire to be someone else and an urge to do her sister proud, Laurel finds herself as Audrey. She plays out a new life using her sisters identity.
Here's a quote from WashingtonPost "It would take a lot of charm for “The Pretty One” to overcome that creepy premise, but the movie doesn’t have it." 
I think I watched it differently than others. I believe a lot of viewers saw her decision to remain with her dead sisters identity as such a horrible premise that it put them off completely.
I saw it the way it was played out, Laurel was mourning as well. Like I said earlier, it seemed to me that she was experiencing a blurred look at life after her loss, a chance of change in sight, as well as a way of keeping her sisters love with her. She even says something along those lines towards the end of the film.
Any other issues critics picked up were not big enough for me to mention.

All of the cast perform brilliantly. Zoe Kazan and Jake Johnson playing the leads who fall in love at a good pace. Both of them playing quirky characters and so connect brilliantly. The movie pulls off love story very well so I won't go into that.
But as it's not ALL about the love story I must now bring out the negative for me. The only reason this film did not get a 10/10.
It's such a unique, ambitious and dark idea that it was bound to have some turbulence issues.
Eventually Laurel has to reveal who she is, what she has done. I think at this point the writers are in a pretty grey area, it being a very rare occasion that anyone has really felt exactly the same emotions portrayed in this story. Has this happened to anyone? Maybe, how did people react?
Anyway there were some bumpy bits around this patch, the colleagues reaction to the news for me delivered some odd lines. Plus it all seemed to round up a fraction too fast.
But other than that the Father's reaction was superb and kind of helped it all to stick together.

Overall this film has enough different types of characters and situations for you to find some connection with. Everyone knows a dad like this, everyone's wanted to be more than they are, everyone's wanted to prove something and fall in love.
Granted, not everyone's stolen the identity of their dead sibling but this film pulls it off very well.
It also looks very pretty, every shot beautiful with wonderful colours
Just great."

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 47%
IMDB Rating:6.3/10

Blimey!