Luce: Did he or didn't he?

The first time we see Luce (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.) he's a high school senior, handsome, smart, popular. He's delivering a speech with his Mom (Naomi Watts) and Dad (Tim Roth) beaming in the audience.

We soon learn that he was adopted at the age of seven. In his earlier years, he was a conscripted child soldier in Africa. The central question in this controversial and thought provoking film is simply this:  Can such a child be rehabilitated?

The movie zigs and zags between the answers to that question.

Enter Luce's high school teacher (Octavia Spencer.) She assigns an essay which Luce completes in a disturbing fashion. Now she's convinced he's not the teenager he appears to be. But, hey, she's got some heavy baggage of her own. Should we believe her?

Luce is a movie that delves into the thorny issue of race in America. Talk about thought provoking. At the same time it must be remembered that Luce is hardly a typical teenager, black or white.