REVIEW: ‘Pretty Lethal’ Fails At Fun

In better hands, Pretty Lethal might’ve lived up to its over-the-top, camp-infused premise. Directed by Vicky Jewson and written by Kate Freund, the film squanders any hope with its dour set designs, abysmal dialogue, and a tone that oscillates between pure, silly, adrenaline-induced bloodshed and a meek attempt at being a story about something. They have ballerinas decked out in classic tutus while wielding blades in their pointe shoes, and somehow it’s a dud. 

Pretty Lethal introduces us to the vaguest plot to set the stage before the characters tumble (or pirouette, if you will) into a fight for survival. Bones (Maddie Ziegler), Princess (Lana Condor), Zoe (Iris Apatow), Chloe (Millicent Simmonds), and Grace (Avantika) are a ballet troupe on their way to a dance competition. In the opening moments, we realize that, despite their talents, they don’t work well together, with Bones and Princess in particular harboring deep hostility. However, they’ll soon have to work together to survive. 

On the way to the competition in Budapest, their bus breaks down, leading them and their instructor, Thorna (Lydia Leonard), to an inn owned by former ballet prodigy Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman, adopting a thick Hungarian accent). The inn is riddled with gang members, all of whom seem to be under Devora’s thumb. Once Thorna realizes the dangerous operations underway, mayhem ensues with pressing consequences for the five dancers.

The biggest surprise in Pretty Lethal is how dull it is. 

From there, the plot becomes less consequential. Devora has baggage against a local gang leader; her inn is adorned with paintings of ballerinas and a ceiling ridden with ballet slippers. But, most importantly to our interest, all five girls are caught and must embark on a deadly fight for survival, using the strength they’ve honed over years of training. 

And this is where the biggest gripe against Pretty Lethal comes up. Because, in theory, there’s so much material to mine from the setting and the characters at the center. Ballet comes as close to real-life body horror as athletics can get – dancing pointe, in and of itself, is a grueling experience that achieves beauty through conditioned pain. In a rallying moment, Bones tells the others not to sell themselves short or assume they’re too weak to fight off a group of men, given the exhausting training they’ve endured and the strength they’ve built. And it’s true! 

So often in writing about action or fight choreography, the term “balletic” comes up, and it’s when the two art styles converge – grace, brutality, and tension – that magic happens. Pretty Lethal has the pieces but fails to put them together in a way that’s satisfactory aside from a few sequences. 

Maddy Ziegler is a strong presence who still can’t boost the overall quality.

It doesn’t help that, of the five main characters, only a few do a good job with the thin roles they’ve been given. Condor is a charming actress who struggles with the mean girl role, while Apatow is lost throughout. Avantika’s role becomes more noteworthy as her character’s bad trip leads to harsher consequences. Simmonds has fun moments that don’t amount to anything larger, while Ziegler tries to keep the whole group together. 

However, Ziegler is also saddled with some of the film’s most cringe-inducing dialogue, and her committed performance struggles under its weight. Again, it’s where the film needed to wrestle more effectively with what it was trying to achieve. Is it a schlocky action flick that leans into its absurd premise or a film about the agony of ballet and feminist rage? Because the division of the two lends itself to a half-serious, half-relentlessly silly picture that fails to come together as a whole. 

The entire point of the opening scene is to show the group’s division as they fight for the spotlight and deal with blatant hostility among themselves. This is clearly meant to set the stage so that, once they’re fighting together, it feels like a significant achievement. However, the film overestimates how much we care. Frankly, the story doesn’t give us enough time before throwing them straight into the pits of Nutcracker hell. 

There’s an imbalance of tone in the messily plotted Pretty Lethal. 

Pretty Lethal does best when it focuses on the carnage as the girls tear the men who attack them to shreds through the combination of dancing and whatever sharp object is within reach. Or, anything that can bludgeon, maim, or blow arms clean off. Even that struggles because even when they arabesque or jeté to drive a blade through an assailant’s throat, the effect lacks weight. It’s like they do so well with the build-up but fail to stick the landing (different sport, I know).

But it’s fun in theory to watch as the group barrels their way against these burly men, clawing and wielding shotguns as their white dresses grow increasingly grimy. It’s just a shame that there’s no finesse or engagement, with a lackluster direction that doesn’t capitalize on the action. The most breathless moment is the first, in a close quarters, eye-gouging bit of horror when Bones engages in a desperate one-on-one fight. It works because the camera allows the action to drive the focus, rather than becoming distracted by all the moving parts as it does later. 

Despite being equipped with the right tools to make a fun, if forgettable, feature, Pretty Lethal reminds us that there’s always more to making a good film than just a good idea. Despite some committed performances and a premise that bubbles with possibility, there’s not enough personality or direction to make it anything more than another half-baked action flick destined for Prime fodder. 

Pretty Lethal is available now on Prime Video.