Wicked Movie Review

Every young actress has one. That ill-advised thriller made when they were too young and inexperienced to get decent work and/or to know what they were doing. Wicked is fortunately a tad better than your usual run-of-the-mill thriller, not much better, but a tad better, thanks largely to a young Julia Stiles who plays the title adjective believably well.

The typical teen angst victim, Ellie (Stiles) threatens to run off to L.A., hates her mother, wants her dad to herself, and longs for, well, who knows what, but she'll do just about anything to get all this stuff. When mom is bludgeoned to death, little Ellie couldn't be a suspect...

Or could she???

Too bad Wicked quickly turns from lukewarm thriller to tepid Hallmark drama, as dad decides he'll hook up with the family's au pair instead of his daughter. You'd expect the body count to keep rising, but it stays remarkably low, with nary but an atrocious score that sounds like a Perry Mason reject to keep us hanging in there.