Film
Luce
- Director
- Julius Onah
- Certificate
- 15
- Running Time
- 110 mins
Nice liberal couple Peter (Tim Roth) and Amy Edgar (Naomi Watts) adopt Eritrean former child soldier Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr) and naturally beam with pleasure when he thrives at his predominantly white school, becoming an accomplished athlete and debater. But Luce feels trapped by the poster boy role that’s forced upon him and the cracks begin to show when his history teacher (Octavia Spencer) discloses a paper he’s written in the voice of revolutionary psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, who advocated violence in the cause of decolonisation.
A major step up from the poorly received The Cloverfield Paradox from Nigerian-Ameircan director Julius Onah, who co-adapted the script with JC Lee from the latter’s play, Luce leaves no button unpushed as it wades into the minefield of racial stereotyping, with no shortage of twists along the way. There’s also a terrific central performance by Kelvin Harrison Jr., whom you’ll recognise from It Comes At Night.
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