Critic Reviews

A genuinely sweet, charming and funny tale of identity lost and found.

The film is a quiet, tender triumph that leaves you feeling as if you've been embraced without you feeling had.

Kazan holds together a decent coming-of-age script that's emotionally sincere if tonally unfocused.

You wish the material were more consistent for these two. Some moments are screechy, others aren't deeply emotional enough. The in-between moments in which LaMarque hits just the right note can be charming, though, and they promise better things to come.

LaMarque foregrounds her scenario’s awkwardness—it never quite feels like a comedy—and the pair of male suitors she brings in (Jake Johnson and Ron Livingston) are, refreshingly, as unfixed as her main character. But you still wish Kazan had more to work with.

This eerily unsettling indie takes a few pleasantly unexpected turns before winding up in a traditional place. But if you think it isn’t worth the time, you have another think coming.

Overall, The Pretty One suffers from excessive, unfocused quirk and a predictable sitcom resolution.

All in all, The Pretty One is too lightweight to justify such a disturbing act of reinvention.

The good twin/bad twin conceit in 2014 doesn’t have a shred of the original surprise, and Zoe Kazan doesn’t have the chops to carry it off anyway.

The Pretty One does find a handful of genuinely sweet moments in which Basel and Laurel bond on letting their respective freak flags fly. Like the film itself, Kazan is at her best when she’s not trying so hard to be cute.