Imagine watching your own funeral, standing there, watching everyone as they struggle for anything to say. How would it feel to know everyone thought so highly of you that not one of them could give a heartfelt eulogy? For Laurel, that ‘fantasy’ is a reality in The Pretty One.
Laurel (Zoe Kazan) is an identical twin. While her sister, Audrey (also Zoe Kazan, wait, what?), moved out to start her life, Laurel stayed at home to take care of her father, Frank (John Carroll Lynch). She was always the shy one, the one who wasn’t quite as cool or popular as her sister, really she’s a wallflower, but her sister doesn’t see that. Audrey believes they’re the same person and she just needs to break free of the town that’s holding her down, so she invites her to move to the City and live with her. Tragedy strikes on the journey up to the City though, after stopping off at a salon to get her hair cut and coloured exactly like Audrey’s, the sisters end up in a car accident. Audrey awakens to discover her sister, Laurel, has passed away. There’s only one problem though, the hospital have it the wrong way round. A mistake made because Laurel is wearing an ‘Audrey’ necklace (which her sister gave to her for her birthday, so they would never feel apart again), the fact nobody knew Laurel had her haircut on the journey to the City and that the car was engulfed in flames leaving no noticeable remains of Audrey – Laurel was saved because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and flung through the windscreen. So Laurel has a new lease of life, albeit not her own, and takes off to the City to be her sister, but in turn she finds out she might just discover herself.
I know twins myself and while this film can be ever so slightly stereotypical in the representation of twins, it also shows them both as individuals. Any siblings who are brought up getting along will have similar traits, but at the same time can be completely different people. The Pretty One shows this, the love Audrey and Laurel have for each other is unbreakable, but Laurel is under confident, with little belief in herself, being dragged down by the town she’s stuck with. Audrey has broken out of those shackles and has become a seemingly strong, successful woman in the City. You don’t have to be a twin to ‘get’ this film, you connect with the story just by looking at your own siblings, that jealousy without hate you sometimes feel. The sympathy you have for one when you know they’re not being the very best that they can be, that love and bond is present and explored wonderfully in the film. The themes of loss, moving on and identity and there for all to see, which are very real and complex issues that we’ve all had to deal with at some point in our lives, especially when growing up when we’re searching for our voice, for who we are and what place we have in this world.
Any actor who has to play two roles in the same film is ambitious in the best possible way and Zoe Kazan perfectly executes her performance as the shy, quirky, sweet Laurel and the cool, confident, outgoing Audrey. And while she only has to play two roles for a small amount of time, it’s the performance afterwards, as Laurel masquerades as Audrey, where Kazan really excels. The young actress can’t seem to help herself when it comes to shinning in hit after hit, building up a very impressive CV in such a short amount of time. Jake Johnson is on form with his comedic presence as the love interest, Basel – Laurel/Audrey’s next door neighbour and tenant, who begins to develop a crush on the surviving twin after she returns and, in his words, stops being such a ‘biatch’. Johnson is showing once again why he is primed and ready to become Hollywood’s next go to guy for leading roles in big comedies.
This is a great coming-of-age comedy-drama regarding identity and self-discovery, about who you are and how it’s okay to just be you, no matter what people think. We’re always going to be challenged by people, sometimes judged and unaccepted but we all find our safety nets eventually, the people who make us feel okay for being us and writer/director Renee LaMarque tells this story beautifully.
Rating: A film about being someone else to be able to become yourself (7/10).
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