Allure

The definition of allure is "to entice by charm or attraction"; " power of attraction or fascination".There is nothing alluring here. Yes, there is a lovely teen ager played extraordinarily well by Julia Sarah Stone. But there is also a deeply tormented, psychopathic captor/lover played by Evan Rachel Wood. I give it two stars instead of one merely because of the powerful performances given by these ladies. If it was so unsavory and gut wrenching for me to watch - then what must it have been for them to make it so through their acting? Yes, it has the best happy ending that a movie about abuse and perversion can have - the young girl escapes and her abuser declares to get better. but... can we believe that? I understand that a major lesson of the movie is that abuse is often, even usually a cycle. And the feeble attempt to show the young girl escaping so she will not continue the cycle, and her abuser shouting her desire to stop it at the end is supposedly the uplifting moment of the movie. But, because so much damage has been portrayed so vividly in the 98 minutes before these last 2 minutes - it cannot relieve the viewer from the misery and disgust with humanity's perverts that has been created so well and for so long before. And, realistically, that is the tragedy of abuse - the cycle is very hard to break! Don't watch it. You can read about abuse, the horror of it, and the cycle of it without feeling nearly so much pain of it as you will watching this movie. I guess that is why I gave the actors the star - they truly made me feel pain, anguish, and the hopelessness of being abused. Great acting, but who needs that?

Acting skills A ++, raw emotions that you felt in your bones, floods of emotions of happiness, disturbing, sad, sick, weird, captivating all in the same 10 seconds. Script id give a solid C+. Needed improvements overall. Plot was unclear, needed more depth, I kept waiting for the good part. Did not come.

Evan Rachel Wood was the main draw to watch the movie, and yes she is always worth a watch. The somber mood and disturbing circumstances make it pretty obvious early on its not going to be a feel good happily ever after type of story. Script could have used some work, feels like a rough draft of a story rather than tying all the ends together. Maybe that was the idea, still some of the questions are left unanswered, but that is how things go sometimes.

I knew Lara was bonkers the 1st 10 minutes. she became the predator that made her a victim of abuse. I did feel pity for Lara and Eva(n)? There's not anything sexy about this film, but it did show me the cycle of karma - when living in a state that is opposite to the universal laws, bad things are going to happen. And when we become out of alignment, we bring misfortune to those around us.

Evan Rachel Wood is an A list actress. not so much in this film. portraying Laura a truly messed up character who I had no sympathy for because she never once has a clear motive. I get that she is messed up because of her father but she makes no attempt to get away from him. instead she chooses to abuse a sixteen year old girl. kidnapping and all. with never a hint at what she Laura expects to come of it. Julia Sarah Stone the girl Eva flees from a somewhat bad mother into the obvious abuse of Laura. never clear what Eva expects to happen and when given multiple chances to leave does not.I get it abused people abuse other people. but this film only offers the barest outline of circumstances without any exploration into the mind or soul of the abusive characters.

If debauchery is your thing, this has it in spades. Disgusting doesn’t even come close to describing the story of a very messed up woman, and the chaos she came from, and which she perpetuates in her own sordid ways. Do yourself a favor, don’t waste your time. Sick, depraved, nothing redeeming, nothing that could even be considered “artistic” or empathetic. Just somebody’s bad idea that people with no sense of decency decided to financially support. Hey, Canadian taxpayers, your money went into producing this piece of filth.Sadly, there are really people who live this way and “groom” the innocent into being their victims.Now I have to bathe my eyes and ears to get the ick out of them. Seriously, this story is deeply depraved. I feel no sorrow for the main character. She knew she was messed up and still decided to mess someone else up. Instead of 1 Star, I’d rather give it 1 Finger.👎🏾 ( You know what I mean.)

It's rare for a female to have a role like this. Wood's performance is right up there with Hillary Swank's 'Boys Don't Cry', and Charlize Theron's 'Monster'. She covers a full spectrum of human emotions and really gives us everything she's got in this film. I'm so impressed.

The farther into the movie, the more you realize just how disturbed and unbalanced this woman is.

found it a little dark in sections