Luce

Adapting JC Lee’s Off-Broadway play, director Julius Onah offers a taut, thorny psychological thriller about a young, black immigrant who seemingly epitomizes the American Dream. Adopted as an orphaned 7-year-old child soldier from war-torn Eritrea, Luce Edgar (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) has made his white middle-class liberal parents (Naomi Watts, Tim Roth) proud. He’s academically gifted, an accomplished debater, and all-star athlete at an Arlington, VA, high school. But when Luce’s stern history teacher, Harriet Wilson (Octavia Spencer), questions his provocative essay about West Indian radical political philosopher Frantz Fanon—and subsequently finds a bag of illegal fireworks in his locker—the possibility of Luce being a terrorist is raised. Parent-teacher confrontations, monitored by the principal (Norbert Leo Butz), raise pertinent questions about racial identity and prejudice. While the Edgars argue about how best to cope with Ms. Wilson’s accusations, there’s a meandering subplot involving Luce’s Chinese-American girlfriend, Stephanie Kim (Andrea Bang), who may have been sexually assaulted at a party. Another extraneous subplot concerns Ms. Wilson’s emotionally unstable sister (Marsha Stephanie Blake), and a third revolves around Luce’s pal (Astro) who was kicked off the track team for drug-related offenses. What happens to youngsters saddled with unrealistically high expectations? Is Luce a schemer or a sympathetic protagonist? Nigerian-born director Onah ramps up the suspense in this contemporary morality tale, and the ensemble cast is uniformly convincing, but the film stumbles with its sometimes inexplicable ambiguity. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Julius Onah, and an interview with costars Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts (8 min.). Bottom line: a solid extras package for a thought-provoking but uneven film.] (S. Granger)