“They picked ‘Luce,’ which means light.”
It’s been ten years since Amy and Peter Edgar (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) adopted their son from war-torn Eritrea, and they thought the worst was behind them. Luce Edgar (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) has become an 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.
Enter Harriet Wilson, an African-American history teacher at Luce’s school who tries to prepare students of color for the hostile realities of the world. Based on an assignment given in her class Luce decides to complete his assignment on Frantz Fanon, the Martinique born Pan-Africanist, philosopher. Ms. Wilson finds contraband and his locker, which confirms there is something more sinister to the “picture perfect” student he is painted out to be.
Ms. Wilson is dealing with her own family issues, her troubled sister (Marsha Stephanie Blake) is dependent upon her. Wilson tries to keep her professional and personal life separate but somehow those worlds collide. Ms. Wilson feels Luce is connected to a string of events.
Without giving too much of the story away, I think this would be a great movie to have students watch both on a high school and collegiate level.
After watching the film I was left with a variety of questions, which I think was intentional. This is not my normal style of film review, but it left me wanting answers to the following questions:
- What was really the intent behind the movie?
- Was this film intended to be a “savior” movie?
- Is this a story of second chances?
Ultimately I remember viewing the film and thinking what did I just watch? Not in a bad way. There were just so many questions. It’s layered in the sense of we have this handsome, young, intelligent, leader who happens to be black, adopted by a white family. As the film progresses we learn he has a dark side or cunning side which may be a better term. I could go Hotep on you and say this is another way Hollywood enters the psyche of non-melanated viewers in terms of you can’t trust the black man. I could see it as a victim movie where the lead character Luce is modern day slavery and was stripped of his name and conformed to the standards of his white adopted family. But again, was this the intention of the film?