Pretty Poison's basically a less romantic and less explosive Bonnie and Clyde, doubling down instead on the black humour and psychological thrills that Arthur Penn's film occasionally flirted with. Unfortunately for us viewers, it's also not all that funny nor thrilling. So what we're left with is a crime film with an illicit romance at its centre that constantly feels like it's suppressing something much wilder and more viscerally engaging than what actually ends up on the screen. Maybe I'm just so used to seeing these kinds of characters unravel in a more explicit manner, but I couldn't really get on board with the muted tone going on here.
Pretty Poison's basically a less romantic and less explosive Bonnie and Clyde, doubling down instead on the black humour and psychological thrills that Arthur Penn's film occasionally flirted with. Unfortunately for us viewers, it's also not all that funny nor thrilling. So what we're left with is a crime film with an illicit romance at its centre that constantly feels like it's suppressing something much wilder and more viscerally engaging than what actually ends up on the screen. Maybe I'm just so used to seeing these kinds of characters unravel in a more explicit manner, but I couldn't really get on board with the muted tone going on here.
