Luce - Review

Luce

Oscar winner Octavia Spencer along with Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Kelvin Harrison Jr. star in the provocative and mind twisting film “Luce”.  

A contemporary piece we find early a loving couple named Amy (Watts) and Peter Edgar (Roth). It's been ten years since Amy and Peter adopted their African son from “Eritrea”. The transition to being American – American culture for their son was difficult largely due to his adolescent emotional trauma of seeing his war torn country. But after much effort their son now with a new name “Luce” meaning ‘”light” Amy and Edgar have thought the worst was behind them. 

Luce Edgar (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) has evolved into a stellar all-star student beloved by his community in Arlington, Virginia. His African American teacher, Harriet Wilson (Octavia Spencer), believes he is a symbol of black excellence that sets a positive example for his peers. But when he is assigned to write an essay in the voice of a historical twentieth-century figure, Luce turns in a paper that makes an alarming statement about political violence. Worried about how this assignment reflects upon her star pupil, Harriet searches his locker and finds something that confirms her worst fears.

REVIEW:  Feeling more like a theatrical screenplay the film “Luce” exudes a lot of raw, nuanced, extremely well-acted emotional power and effort from its beginning to its 1:57 minute running time end. A complicated but highly entertaining story that essentially is a psychological mystery operating in a moving back and forth “who done it” and “why they did it” precisely constructed human puzzle and emotionally political plot.

In what felt like me viewing acting subjects under a microscope that were also living inside a small box under that same microscope the film compels you to examine universal dynamics. Such as a nuclear family’s love and loyalty for their child at all costs. The pressures individuals place on themselves as well as society for them to not only achieve success but  be consumed by it to the point of 100% perfection. The well known dynamics of American racial strife both big and small.The issues of having a racially blended home even with the best of everyone's intentions to making it work. Having suspicions about someone rather justified or unfounded. The broad issues of personal constitutional privacy verses simply being an underage student. The complexity of and what constitutes someone telling a lie verses simply being mistaken. And finally the matters of someone being blatantly deceptive verse being simply naive. This is truly a very fascinating story seemingly compacted into a well-timed modern suburban sociopolitical drama.l to enjoy.

But the real reason to see this film is actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. His work here could be a star making turn for him in the same way Denzel Washington was catapulted into national stardom after his time on the 1980’s TV show “Saint Elsewhere”. Harrison delivers a masterful juxtaposition performance that was part charismatic and charming and equally disturbing and creepy. He owns the screen every second like some veteran actor of 20 plus years developing and executing “Luce” adroitly and very calculating as someone in one moment you really want to get to know better and then equally cause you real tension and anxiety in the same second, the very same sentence.

Overall, Nigerian-American director Julius Onah executes his “Luce” squarely focused for the audience to make the final judgement as to who is telling the truth and more importantly why you believe them?. And it is this very aspect of the film mysterious movement I  savored, as I was never really 100% sure who to believe.

“Luce” is a wonderfully uncomfortable and disturbing film to watch and to ponder to its very uncomfortable disturbing end. 

3.75 Stars