Review by C.J. Bunce
The next women-led action thriller comes from one of the producers of Atomic Blonde and Bullet Train, but it’s really more a mash-up of Abigail, Black Swan, and Ready or Not, or Pride and Prejudice and Zombies meets Karen Gillan’s dance fighter from Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Any one of those references accurately describes MGM-Amazon Studios’ latest “ballerina horror” movie, Pretty Lethal, now streaming on Prime Video. When the van carrying a top U.S. ballet troupe stalls out on a forest road on the way to a competition in Hungary, the women temporarily make a stop at a grand lodge, which happens to be hosting the loose-cannon heir to a powerful mob family. When the troupe’s manager offends him, he doesn’t think twice about killing her. But tying up the loose ends–the ballerinas who witnessed the murder–isn’t what he expects. The result is a bloody battle to the death, with five young women bent on revenge and years of diligent physical strength training as their weapon.
All of the bad happens in a lodge with a performing arts theme run by Devora, a tough but charismatic manager well aware of the criminal goings on, played by Uma Thurman. A former prima ballerina herself, she instantly is drawn to the young women, and doesn’t appreciate the flippant attitude of the thugs who are quick to kill them. Tamás Szabó Sipos is the thug who killed the team’s coach (played by Lydia Leonard), who inadvertently witnessed the mobsters torturing a man. He is the son of Lothar, played by Michael Culkin, a man too good to ever frequent Devora’s establishment. What Lothar doesn’t recall is that he was responsible for ending Devora’s career as a ballerina many years ago. You just know early on that everything that happens in this movie is leading to the appropriate vengeance served to Lothar and his son for the murder and for simply interrupting these women’s lives.
The five ballerinas arrive at the lodge in the rain, so they change into their tutus while their clothes dry, which explains a movie full of them fighting, surviving, dance fighting like synchronized swimmers, and getting all bloody along the way–in their dance outfits. The young women are all attitude, and may call back to the heroines of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The leader of the bunch is Bones, played by Maddie Ziegler. Nothing is going to get in the way of her performing in the championships–she has all the determination of Samara Weaving’s heroine in the Ready or Not series.
Avantika plays Grace, who early on consumes some drugs that cause her initially to react in more humorous ways to the onslaught coming down on her and her friends. But when one of the men arrives to rape her, Bones arrives to save the day. Lana Condor plays Princess, the most self-centered of the team, she’s quick to leave the others behind and make a run for it, but eventually finds her way to join up to help defend her mates.
The other two members of the team are sisters. Iris Apatow plays Zoe, who reminds the team that her deaf sister Zoe, played by Millicent Simmonds, went to the restroom when her coach was murdered outside, and is not aware they are all in a warzone trying to escape. She’s devoted to her sister, even if her sister would rather make out with one of the thugs. But Chloe eventually realizes all that is going down.
The result is plenty of action and fun, especially with the quips and banter of Kate Freund’s script and all the camaraderie and frenemy relationships among the ballerinas. Director Vicky Jewson keeps the movie from being more than it needs to be, pacing everything to keep the choreographed fight scenes clever, interspersed between scenes unveiling the attitudes, strengths, and minor weaknesses of each woman.
The only disappointment is not letting Thurman be part of the choreographed fight scenes in the third act. Ultimately she’s there more to bring some street cred to the movie.
Who knew there was going to be an expanding sub-genre of ballet horror? It’s fun, and it’s full of action, with a satisfying ending. Don’t miss Pretty Lethal, streaming now on Prime Video.
