LUCE

"Luce" is one of the best politically slanted thrillers of recent years. It takes potentially explosive material, (it's a movie about race but not in any conventional sense), and treats it with an intelligence rare in movies these days. Luce, (a magnificent Kelvin Harrison Jr.), is a high school student raised by an American couple, (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth, both excellent), after being rescued as a child from war-torn Eritrea. When he writes a controversial essay that advocates the use of political violence both his adoptive parents and his teacher, (Octavia Spencer, also magnificent), begin to wonder if Luce really is the boy they thought they knew.

It's a film that sets out its arguments lucidly, (no pun intended), building tension slowly by showing what is said and what is left unsaid can so easily destroy lives when left unchallenged or misinterpreted. Brilliantly written by J.C. Lee, adapting his own play, and the director Julius Onah, superbly directed by Onah and beautifully acted by the six main players this is a film of ideas, again a rarity in mainstream cinema today, that is both entertaining and thought-provoking, the kind of film you take out of the cinema with you and talk about for days.