Lure Film Review

Star rating: 3/5

Writer: Oliver Cox

Director: Oliver Cox

Starring: Silvia Presente, Kit Eruso, Joe Lockhart, Paul David-Cough, Gregory Fung, Sammy Elkhatib and Reece Henderson.

Lure is a convoluted, violent cinematic metaphor for searching for ‘the one’.

It all starts very nicely. Tom, a young 20 something from London, is being driven by his father to a party where he will get the opportunity to find a new crowd. Or so he thinks. He arrives at a typical British country house, where he is greeted by Islay, who is supposedly hosting the party and who tells him he is the first to arrive where he asks where the others are. It turns out this is no party, and Tom is about to join the worst ‘game’ of his life, where his qualities will be tested in relation to other men’s, with a view to be the father of Islay’s ‘perfect’ future child. This ‘game’ at the centre of Lure is like a nasty version of The Traitors, the worst you’ve ever seen, and here is where the film becomes a really gratuitous piece, with near constant scenes of torture that are unpleasant to watch.

The film is somewhat saved by the actor’s performances, and the set and costume design. In terms of the performances, Silvia Presente is rather brilliant as Islay, putting on an almost theatrical display. The whole cast responds with truly energetic performances- as much as performing about 60 minutes of tension and torture can be called ‘energetic’. But the quality of the cast is undeniable. The set design meanwhile is tasteful, and powerful, with an earthy though dark colour tones. These match the costume design, particularly Islay who wears a monochrome outfit that is at once beautiful but somehow also fitting the nasty occasion.

Frustrated by her continued failed attempts at these games, Islay asks her mother ‘when will I find one?’. 'You cannot rush these things', is the answer given to Islay. This is a question that resonates deeply for my generation (just reached 30) who yearns for connection while on many occasions searching for it the wrong way, or in the wrong places. We are, on the whole, a violent generation. Perhaps we may even see Lure as a somewhat intelligent metaphor of the modern 'dating game', where it can go awfully wrong, be unpleasant as an experience and is taken as being all about the result, the end game (including having children), with massive disregard for feelings or actual connection.

Lure has sparks of an interesting argument not just about dating but about navigating the pain and frustrations of 'searching' for a partner, and the feelings of those at the other end of our 'searching', but the gratuitous violence means I personally would not watch it again.

Lure is on UK digital 2 February from Reel2Reel Films.