A violent genre mashup where athletic grace collides with implausible survival stakes
When one thinks of a ballerina, they often envision a slight, young woman who is graceful and dainty. However, what people don't realize is that they are athletes who work hard, have terrific agility and flexibility, and plenty of muscles, especially in their legs and their core. So when a group of young ballerinas get stuck in an isolated bar somewhere in Europe, no one expects them to fight back when they are threatened. Not only do they surprise their captors, but they also show an impressive amount of skill in the art of killing. This is the concept of the new Amazon Prime Video movie, Pretty Lethal.
Members of a Los Angeles-based dance troupe are set to perform in a prestigious, worldwide competition set in Europe. Bones (Maddie Ziegler; Music), Princess (Lana Condor; X-Men: Apocalypse), Zoe (Iris Apatow; This Is 40) Chloe (Millicent Simmonds; A Quiet Place) and Grace (Avantika; Mean Girls) set off with their teacher, Miss Thorna (Lydia Leonard; The Fifth Estate), soon find them trekking through the woods after their bus breaks down. Seeking shelter from the rain, they find an isolated home that houses a bar. The owner, Devora Kaiser (Uma Thurman; Kill Bill Vols. 1 and 2), and patrons are accommodating, offering the troupe food and dryers for their clothes. However, when a mobster kills Miss Thorna after she spurned his affections, the girls must work as a team and defend themselves to make it out alive.
Where to begin with this action/horror/ thriller movie? While the cast is decent, many of them, especially the younger members, are inexperienced. This leads to some uneven performances and awkward moments. Ziegler is ok while Simmonds is very good, which isn't surprising since she was just as good in A Quiet Place and its sequel. Thurman is a consummate professional and is well cast as the bar owner who doesn't take crap from anyone. Avantika is intriguing, especially when she needs to act as if she is high. The rest of the cast is rather unmemorable.
The script is where most of the problems start, though there are others to be named later. Written by Kate Freund (Big Baby), Pretty Lethal is an interesting concept but extremely unrealistic, with terrible, groan-worthy dialogue. Some humorous moments are probably a result of a combination of writing and directing, but those scenes can't sustain a whole film. Director Vicky Jewson (Close) does what she can, but there is some terrible dialogue that almost nobody could fix.
That brings us to the question of how believable the film's central premise really is. Firstly, anyone who knows one iota about ballet will tell you that this cast is most unlikely to be chosen for some prestigious international competition that only invites "the best of the best". Of the five young women portraying the troupe, one, maybe two, of them have the body type of a ballerina, and none of them are excellent ballet dancers. Zeglier is known more for modern and contemporary styles of dance, and it is very obvious in every dance scene. Secondly, there is little to no possibility that these girls would be sitting in a bar or that the patrons would try to kill them. Thirdly, while the fight choreography is well done as it incorporates actual dance steps into the scenes, more than likely, at the end of the day, those girls probably would not have made it out alive.
I could see some individuals finding Pretty Lethal a fun and taking it as a tongue-in-cheek Action/Horror/Thriller, in which case it works (sort of), but as a serious movie, it doesn't work all that well. I personally also find it difficult to get past all the issues I cited above.
Does Pretty Lethal work? Yes. Does it work well? Not so much.
Grade: C+
