It follows a group of ballerinas as they try to escape from a remote inn after their bus breaks down on the way to a dance competition.
Chuck says:
Girl power is trending at the movies the week. In addition to pairs of sibling demon hunters in “Ready or Not 2” and “They Will Kill You,” and the high school coven in “Forbidden Fruits,” Amazon Prime has “Pretty Lethal,” featuring a troupe of butt-kicking ballerinas. Though this collection of movies does not signal a renaissance in exploitation flicks, you’re excused for making that assumption. The best of this quartet – this film and “Ready” -acknowledge their sordid roots with a wink and a nod to the audience, letting the audience know all involved are in on the joke.
A tribute to strength and tenacity of ballerinas everywhere, “Lethal” wastes little time in putting its deadly quintet into action. Led by their instructor Miss Thorna (Lydia Leonard), the five senior members of Hollywood’s Sunset Dance Academy are off to Budapest for a prestigious dance competition. However, their travels are delayed when their plane is diverted and they’re forced to hire a VW Bus to go the rest of the way. The plot dictates this break down as well, leaving the troupe stranded and ultimately seeking refuge at the remote Teremok Inn.
Of course, they have no way of knowing this is a nefarious watering hole for local crime bosses, one of which takes exception when Throna rebuffs his advances and promptly shoots her in the head. The owner of the Teremok, Devora Kasimer (Uma Thurman), a former ballerina with a tragic past, knows this will bring unwanted attention to her establishment and puts the dancers in hiding. Buckling to pressure from higher ups, she realizes the only way to keep this under wraps is to kill them and sends her lackies to do the job.
Were it not for the convincing performances and camaraderie of the actresses playing the five dancers, the film would have been dead on arrival. However, Maddie Ziegler as Bones, Lana Condor as Princess, Avantika as Grace, and Millicent Simmonds and Iris Apatow as sisters Chloe and Zoe are up the task, both comedically and physically. Though initially on their heels, the girls rally when they realize that with a tweak here or there, their rigorous training can be put to lethal use. Before you know it, they’ve fashioned razors to the end of their pointe shoes and with a flurry of plies and pirouettes, they’re slicing and dicing every bad guy thrown their way.
Director Vicky Jewson handles the action scenes with aplomb, holding shots longer than many of her contemporaries while the editing is not so frantic that we can’t follow the action. Kate Freund’s script could use some trimming as the second act sags badly. But her characters are distinctive and appealing, their contrasting personalities making for genuine tension between them as well as the occasional laugh.
Thurman, in a role in which she could have phoned it in, pulls out all the stops as Kasimer. Tough as nails on the outside, she harbors a Miss Havisham complex, ruing the circumstances that led to her dancing career being cut short. When she emerges in the third act in full ballerina regalia, eyebrows etched on her kabuki-like make-up, it’s an unexpectedly poignant Norma Desmond moment that d cuts through the chaos that surrounds her.
Clocking in under 90 minutes, “Lethal” is efficiently executed. This unexpectedly enjoyable, albeit bloody time-filler is better than expected and, if nothing else, permanently lays to rest the notion that dancers of this sort are delicate and fragile.
3 Stars
