Review: Luce

High-school student Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) was adopted by white parents Naomi Watts and Tim Roth from war-torn Eritrea at the age of 7. In his birth country he was taught from an early age to kill. In America, he’s become a well-liked, academically gifted teen who heads up the debate team, is frequently asked to make school speeches, and is also a damn good multi-discipline athlete. He’s also kind of smarmy, openly admits he’s good at ‘acting’ surprised, and his teacher Miss Wilson (Octavia Spencer) is troubled that the historical figure he’s chosen to write a major thesis on, is a known revolutionary scholar who promoted violence against the forces of colonisation. A bit troubling, right? Luce retorts that he was simply doing as asked – writing in the voice of his subject. Miss Wilson is Luce’s mentor and normally one of his biggest supporters, but now she also accuses Luce of hiding illegal fireworks in his locker. A locker she searches on mere suspicion and without Luce’s consent.

 

We can tell that Luce is deeply troubled by something, but is the teacher right to be suspicious? Although his father is at least privately willing to ponder the possibility that his son may not be all sweetness and sunshine, both of Luce’s parents ultimately believe he has done no wrong. But do they truly know their adopted son? Is there a chance of ‘white guilt’ possibly playing a part in their unbending faith in him? Could this kid taken from child soldier beginnings now have bad intentions in mind? And what’s with this supposed sexual assault on a female student (Andrea Bang) allegedly by acquaintances of Luce? (This is going to be a review full of questions being asked, by the way) Miss Wilson suspects that there’s more to that story than Luce supposedly helping the girl escape that situation as he claims. The girl has nothing but good things to say about Luce, though. Meanwhile, we learn a bit more about Miss Wilson, who seems to want to promote the ‘right kind’ of minority student, one who breaks out of the negative stereotypes (i.e. Luce), favouring them at the expense of those whom she deems to be re-enforcing those negative stereotypes. The idea being that she wants to prepare these minority students for a world that will hold them to a higher unfair standard, so she does too and sees Luce as her poster boy of perfection. Luce is particularly upset that a friend’s drug use resulted in his suspension – Miss Wilson finding something in his locker too – whilst protected ‘Great Black Hope’ Luce’s fairly well-known marijuana use is completely ignored by faculty. Now all of a sudden she’s starting to see Luce in a different light, and is worried that the ‘anointed one’ is starting to stray from the right path, so to speak. Miss Wilson also has a mentally ill sister who is in and out of care facilities, and seems to have no personal life to speak of. Just what does all of this add up to?

 

Well this one jumped up and surprised me in a pleasant way. Directed by Julius Onah (“The Cloverfield Paradox”) and co-written with J.C. Lee from the latter’s stage play (not that it’s remotely stagey), this twisty 2019 will keep you guessing the main character’s motives and intentions for the entire length of the film…and even afterwards. It’s a fascinatingly tantalising film, and although the build-up is more satisfying than the ending, it’s partly by design. That’ll piss some people off, but I liked everything leading up to the conclusion well enough not to be too bothered by that. In fact, I was actually fine with the conclusion too, it’s just that the first half is even stronger than the second half of the film.

 

Chief to the film’s success is an excellently unreadable performance by Kelvin Harrison Jr. in the title role. At times Luce comes across as smug, smarmy, perhaps even harbouring sinister thoughts. At other times he seems bright, sweet, well-meaning, but perhaps dealing with inner turmoil that dare not speak its name. I was never quite sure where I landed on with him, and I’m pretty sure that was by design. There are several characters here who stubbornly refuse to speak what’s on their mind and make things easier for everyone. That will frustrate some people, but I didn’t mind as I found it somewhat realistic at the very least. Harrison’s performance hints at something dark going on inside of Luce, but Harrison – and the film – keep you guessing as to what that darkness might be. I mean, based on his words alone, everything about Luce seems quite on the level. He could be completely innocent of sexual misconduct and there could be nothing remotely sinister about his politically-charged thesis, etc. He’s right, he was asked to write about something a certain way, and he did just that. The teacher could be letting her bias and imagination get the better of her, let alone be somewhat unbalanced due to stresses in her personal life. However, Luce has a demeanour at times that suggests a chip on his shoulder at the very least. At times he also seems to be in emotional turmoil, for potentially numerous reasons. He could also very well be sinister or even sociopathic, or he could very well be an innocent kid who also happens to be somewhat of an arrogant little shithead. He also might not have done anything wrong yet, but one wonders if he might do something bad at some point in the future. Perhaps this is all just him trying to prove a point to someone.

 

That same duality and hard to read quality exists in the performance and character played by Octavia Spencer (who also produced the film) as his teacher. Can she be trusted? Is she right to be suspicious of Luce? Does she play favourites? Does she have an inappropriate agenda here and place Luce on some kind of ‘golden black student’ pedestal whilst treating other minority students poorly? Is Luce gaslighting the poor woman? Is it a mixture of all or several of the above? The film twists and turns a lot throughout, as it appears there’s no easy answers and everyone is in some way flawed and filled with biases, agendas, and/or frailties.

 

A fascinating, twisty psychological drama/mystery touching on issues of race/prejudice, societal pressure/privilege, the perils of tokenism, etc. Terrific performances from top to bottom, but especially those by Kelvin Harrison Jr. and a well-cast Naomi Watts as a concerned, curious, loving, and conflicted mother. Absolutely ripe for post-film discussion and debate, this one doesn’t spoon feed you a damn thing, but at least for me, it didn’t lose me either. I was riveted. A real sleeper surprise.

 

Rating: B-