Movie Review: The Pretty One

The Pretty One (2013) by Jenée LaMarque. With  Zoe Kazan, Jake Johnson, Frances Shaw and John Carroll Lynch.






I always loved sisterhood/brotherhood stories and twin themed movies, even if the actors who play the twins are actually one (like Lindsay Lohan in "The Parent Trap" or Armie Hammer in "The Social Network", for example).
Also I find that Zoe Kazan is really talented and turned out perfect in both twins' parts in this movie...







So here's the story (SPOILERS ALLEART!):
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Audrey and Laurel are identical twins but (like every twin movie worth the name) they couldn't be more different. 



After their mom's death, Audrey left the little town they grew up in and started her new life in the city, while Laurel stayed home, taking care of their father and living a boring and submissive life, painting portraits with her father.
Audrey comes back home for her and Laurel's birthday and, sick and tired of her sister's passivity, convinces Laurel to move in with her. To celebrate, they go for some hair makeover where Laurel gets Audrey' same haircut and that's why, after a car accident, she gets mistaken for her sister. 

At fake Laurel's funerals no one says a thing when it's time to commemorate her, so real Laurel decides to take her sister's identity and live what she thought was Audrey's perfect and indipendent life.

Once at Audrey's home, Laurel finds that her sister wasn't so perfect after all: she had a relationship with Charles, a married man, and was a real jerk with her neighbor, Basel.
With the excuse of short-term memory amnesia caused by the accident, Laurel starts Audrey's real estate job and makes some tragicomic mistakes by the way....she also falls in love with Basel, but since everyone is convinced she's Audrey, she has some hard times and eventually has to reveal the truth to him and to her father.

At first they're all mad at her, but since she seems to be a whole new Laurel, more confident in her abilities and after she explained that she felt like a spectator and not the protagonist of her own life, her father and ultimately Basel try to forgive her.


I liked this comedy: the actors were amazing and a few scenes are hilarious. I get that Laurel is sick and tired of a life in her sister' shadow, but I think she recovered really too soon from her grief, yet if they had respect the whole mourning process it would have been a really long movie, I guess!


Ranking: 4/5

photo credits: all over the Internet