Synopsis
A married couple is forced to reckon with their idealized image of their son, adopted from war-torn Eritrea, after an alarming discovery by a devoted high school teacher threatens his status as an all-star student.
Directed by Julius Onah.
Written by J.C. Lee and Julius Onah.
Starring Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer and Tim Roth.
Released 8th November 2019.
Review
When I tried to pick films just from their descriptions but it was hard to not give this an automatic pass when I saw a set picture with Octavia Spencer in it. She's currently one of a few actors that get me hyped for a film.
Luce is a star at school, he's academic and athletic, a poster boy for how a child can thrive in the right environment. He had the worst beginning but then his parents adopted him from a war zone and brought him to America to give him a better future.
The challenge of school is made worse by a history teacher who holds her students to a higher standard. Appearances are very important to her and when Luce's recent assignment could be a big flag on his academic life and the school because of his personal history she starts to get on his case. The battle takes on a life of its own as things start to come to light about both of them.
Luce was an interesting film to watch, it shows a lot of different relationships and as such it's a very wordy sort of film. I'm not averse to wordy films but they can be a little dry to watch, luckily in this case the main cast are engaging and keep you interested.
Had we not been blessed with such a great performance from Kelvin Harrison Jr as Luce I think this would have failed to make it out of the blocks. Luce becomes something very serious in his hands and the swing in the character left me with an uneasy feeling as I watched. The one frustrating thing I found was that I could sense the insincerity in all of his responses so I was frustrated that it was only really Miss Wilson that picked up on it. I understand that it's a necessary part of the story... but still.
Octavia Spencer didn't disappoint as Harriet Wilson. She got to give a good range as she devolves after going head to head with Luce. I think she probably managed to cover every emotion and handles either end of the spectrum very well.
Tim Roth and Naomi Watts play Luce's adoptive parents. Roth is someone I love on screen but Watts is an unknown entity for me as I've only seen her in 2005's King Kong. There's obviously a certain amount of tension/conflict between the couple but even taking that into consideration I didn't feel there was much of a rapport between them. Even when you take into account the conflict in the film I couldn't quite find it in me to feel anything for the couple, good or bad. Roth as Peter was good and brought across the slightly bitter side of the character well but Watt's Amy didn't seem to have enough emotion behind her. I'd have said that Amy in particular could have stood to be a little grittier, at least a small part of her did need to be a bit of a pushover but combined with her activities in the film the character didn't feel entirely believable.
Luce was enjoyable to watch but looking back I'm less enthusiastic despite the good performances at the front of it. The good sadly didn't outweigh the average for me and at times it became a little confusing, but it's still a solid film.
What you should do
Unlimited members have got a chance to see this early so I'm of course going to suggest you see it, It's a nicely done film and I'm sure that it'll appeal to lots of viewers.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
A house with hidey-holes containing something more exciting than dust and dead bugs.
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