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‘Pretty Thing’ Review: A Casual Lover Turns Committed Stalker in a Medium-Hot Thriller With Alicia Silverstone

Justin Kelly’s medium-hot thriller has Alicia Silverstone as an executive whose dalliance with working-class hunk Karl Glusman gets out of control.

Director Justin Kelly(“I Am Michael,” “JT Leroy”) and actor-turned-writer Jack Donnelly do a decent job setting things up, soft-pedaling narrative clichés and delivering medium-grade, relatively un-corny sexiness in a handsome widescreen production. Rarely does dialogue do much to deepen our understanding of the dramatic personae, arising mostly in the heroine’s interactions with other women: Notably Tammy Blanchard in one scene as Sophie’s sister, and Britne Oldford in another as an acquaintance of Elliot’s that she consults for advice. There’s a kernel of a grounding idea here, that as Sophie (who does some boxing training at a gym) becomes more physically violent in her rejection of an unwanted suitor, Elliot realizes he’s a nascent masochist enthralled by just such punitive treatment.

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