Finally a film examining the racial divide in this country chooses not to fall for easy answers. Director Julius Onah collaborated with JC Lee on the screenplay based on Lee's play. The title character, brilliantly played by Kelvin Harrison Jr., is a high school student initially adopted as a troubled child soldier from Eritrea by white parents, Amy and Peter, played with great intensity by Naomi Watts and Tim Roth.
Luce, an A-student and track star, is seen at the beginning of the film, rehearsing a speech he's about to make before the student body. He reminds one of a young Obama and is even told that by fellow students (pejoratively as it turns out). Luce comes into conflict with his history teacher, Harriet Wilson, played by Octavia Spencer, in the surprisingly welcome role as the heavy (in contrast to many earlier films where she's played overly sympathetic characters).
Harriet, a conservative African-American woman has already gotten DeShaun, the star football player, kicked off the team with no chance of receiving a college scholarship, after she rummages through his locker and finds marijuana there. Harriet, a stickler for the rules, has a reputation as a hard ass and Luce apparently resents her lack of flexibility.
When Luce writes a paper assigned by Harriet in the voice of Frantz Fanon, a French-African nationalist who advocated violence to oppose colonial stewardship, alarm bells go off in Ms. Wilson's head. Her best student may be embracing the radical posture of the more militant African-American students at the school and she doesn't want to see Luce ruin his career. To add insult to injury, she also finds a cache of illegal fireworks in his locker.
Wilson's decision to go through Luce's locker is actually debated in class between the two in a hypothetical discussion involving legal decisions. While it appears Wilson is able to legally justify going through the locker, it's clear Luce will have none of her argument. The rummaging through the locker is probably the weakest plot link in the film. While justification is somehow provided during this classroom debate between the principals, in reality a teacher would never have been allowed to get away with going through a student's locker like that without permission-especially in a school with a liberal, progressive principal like Mr. Towson (played by Norbert Leo Butz).
Wilson brings all this to Luce's mom Amy, who fears the underlying psychopathology of his younger years may be re-emerging. Is he sociopath or merely the victim of a teacher who has a vendetta against him? And could Ms. Wilson's "vendetta" actually be based on holding Luce to a higher standard (in Luce's eyes, the black student is expected to be "perfect"). Wilson, in contrast, acknowledges how racism can easily bring African-Americans down and that's why even a small slip-up can ruin any chances to succeed in a society run by whites.
Luce (the film) morphs into a psychological thriller as we're eager to know whether Luce is honest or not. Soon it becomes apparent, that Luce, as a school leader, cannot allow the slight to DeShaun to go unanswered. The earlier reference to Frantz Fanon becomes completely a propos-Fanon, known for his axiom of "the oppressed becoming the oppressor," now completely applies to the manipulative Luce. Through a series of brilliant schemes (including conscripting his girlfriend to lie to Ms. Wilson that she was gang raped by some students at a drunken party), he manages to get the 15 year teaching veteran fired.
Wilson, however, remains somewhat sympathetic. In a subplot, she cares for a drug-addicted woman with mental health issues whom she has taken in as a ward. The woman ends up appearing at the high school, has a meltdown (ripping off all her clothes to boot) and ends up tasered by cops who arrive there after 911 is called.
The film's scenarists do what good screenwriters should do-introduce moral ambiguity into a story where one strains to figure out who is the correct protagonist and antagonist. What's more I think the protagonist is not as sympathetic as one would like and the antagonist has troubling sympathetic qualities.
May I venture to suggest that Ms. Wilson is the protagonist but deeply flawed? She holds high school students to the standard of adults which has very unfortunate consequences, especially for that one student expecting a college scholarship. On the other hand, Luce is clearly the antagonist, in that he is willing to lie and manipulate others in order to take down a 15 year veteran teacher, who admirably has been caring for a drug-addicted woman off the streets. But still, can't Luce's behavior be excused due to his extremely difficult childhood? What's more, it appears at film's end that he is remorseful regarding his behavior and is on the road to positive change.
The parents here are complicated characters too. Naomi Watts displays a gamut of emotions as she's on a veritable roller-coaster, not knowing whether she should be supportive or critical of her son. But Tim Roth who plays the father, will have none of Luce's manipulation. He never really wanted to raise a troubled child in the first place, and now feels that his negative expectations have been confirmed.
In this era where some filmmakers choose to depict African-Americans as perennial victims, Luce is a refreshing change. Indeed, the axiom of "the oppressed becoming the oppressor," suggests that those who have been victims of racism, would sometimes prefer to embrace the "sweet taste" of revenge as opposed to taking the "high road" (or as Spike Lee put it: "Do the right thing"). But on the other hand, in this film (as in life in general), things are not always "black and white" nor is right always completely right and wrong always completely wrong.
Luce, an A-student and track star, is seen at the beginning of the film, rehearsing a speech he's about to make before the student body. He reminds one of a young Obama and is even told that by fellow students (pejoratively as it turns out). Luce comes into conflict with his history teacher, Harriet Wilson, played by Octavia Spencer, in the surprisingly welcome role as the heavy (in contrast to many earlier films where she's played overly sympathetic characters).
Harriet, a conservative African-American woman has already gotten DeShaun, the star football player, kicked off the team with no chance of receiving a college scholarship, after she rummages through his locker and finds marijuana there. Harriet, a stickler for the rules, has a reputation as a hard ass and Luce apparently resents her lack of flexibility.
When Luce writes a paper assigned by Harriet in the voice of Frantz Fanon, a French-African nationalist who advocated violence to oppose colonial stewardship, alarm bells go off in Ms. Wilson's head. Her best student may be embracing the radical posture of the more militant African-American students at the school and she doesn't want to see Luce ruin his career. To add insult to injury, she also finds a cache of illegal fireworks in his locker.
Wilson's decision to go through Luce's locker is actually debated in class between the two in a hypothetical discussion involving legal decisions. While it appears Wilson is able to legally justify going through the locker, it's clear Luce will have none of her argument. The rummaging through the locker is probably the weakest plot link in the film. While justification is somehow provided during this classroom debate between the principals, in reality a teacher would never have been allowed to get away with going through a student's locker like that without permission-especially in a school with a liberal, progressive principal like Mr. Towson (played by Norbert Leo Butz).
Wilson brings all this to Luce's mom Amy, who fears the underlying psychopathology of his younger years may be re-emerging. Is he sociopath or merely the victim of a teacher who has a vendetta against him? And could Ms. Wilson's "vendetta" actually be based on holding Luce to a higher standard (in Luce's eyes, the black student is expected to be "perfect"). Wilson, in contrast, acknowledges how racism can easily bring African-Americans down and that's why even a small slip-up can ruin any chances to succeed in a society run by whites.
Luce (the film) morphs into a psychological thriller as we're eager to know whether Luce is honest or not. Soon it becomes apparent, that Luce, as a school leader, cannot allow the slight to DeShaun to go unanswered. The earlier reference to Frantz Fanon becomes completely a propos-Fanon, known for his axiom of "the oppressed becoming the oppressor," now completely applies to the manipulative Luce. Through a series of brilliant schemes (including conscripting his girlfriend to lie to Ms. Wilson that she was gang raped by some students at a drunken party), he manages to get the 15 year teaching veteran fired.
Wilson, however, remains somewhat sympathetic. In a subplot, she cares for a drug-addicted woman with mental health issues whom she has taken in as a ward. The woman ends up appearing at the high school, has a meltdown (ripping off all her clothes to boot) and ends up tasered by cops who arrive there after 911 is called.
The film's scenarists do what good screenwriters should do-introduce moral ambiguity into a story where one strains to figure out who is the correct protagonist and antagonist. What's more I think the protagonist is not as sympathetic as one would like and the antagonist has troubling sympathetic qualities.
May I venture to suggest that Ms. Wilson is the protagonist but deeply flawed? She holds high school students to the standard of adults which has very unfortunate consequences, especially for that one student expecting a college scholarship. On the other hand, Luce is clearly the antagonist, in that he is willing to lie and manipulate others in order to take down a 15 year veteran teacher, who admirably has been caring for a drug-addicted woman off the streets. But still, can't Luce's behavior be excused due to his extremely difficult childhood? What's more, it appears at film's end that he is remorseful regarding his behavior and is on the road to positive change.
The parents here are complicated characters too. Naomi Watts displays a gamut of emotions as she's on a veritable roller-coaster, not knowing whether she should be supportive or critical of her son. But Tim Roth who plays the father, will have none of Luce's manipulation. He never really wanted to raise a troubled child in the first place, and now feels that his negative expectations have been confirmed.
In this era where some filmmakers choose to depict African-Americans as perennial victims, Luce is a refreshing change. Indeed, the axiom of "the oppressed becoming the oppressor," suggests that those who have been victims of racism, would sometimes prefer to embrace the "sweet taste" of revenge as opposed to taking the "high road" (or as Spike Lee put it: "Do the right thing"). But on the other hand, in this film (as in life in general), things are not always "black and white" nor is right always completely right and wrong always completely wrong.