Allure

The two main actresses in this movie are wonderful. Especially Evan Rachel wood as a spiraling lonely woman. This movie captures how relationships can quickly turn toxic and abusive. It shows broken and lost souls trying to find love and happiness. It's not a feel good movie, but if you enjoy character driven films it's great.

Laura (Evan Rachel Wood) is a house cleaner. She's troubled and sexually promiscuous. She starts a new job at a family home and befriends the teenage pianist daughter Eva (Julia Sarah Stone). Eva runs away from home and lives with Laura.

This has the greatness of Evan and a nice newcomer in Julia. The plot is pretty thin and some scenes are too quiet for stretches. Sometimes, it's giving these characters room to breathe. Sometimes, it's a slow nothingness. I like the movie but I would definitely condense it to give it more intensity. Also the filmmakers don't seem to know how to elevate the danger. The movie needs to pump up the tension especially with the first thirty minutes. It needs to squeeze in some higher stakes in every scene. This indie has a few smaller indie awards but it's not good enough to get to a higher level.

Evan Rachel Wood plays a very troubled character.

She is suffering, she is in pain.

We watch her interactions with other characters without understanding fully what is going on - we have to piece this together like a mystery because in fact it is.

It's a film that will bring viewers together afterwards for a discussion.

Fortunately she was at my screening to help with my questions.

Thanks to her, her co-stars and the filmmakers for accompanying it to 2017 Tiff.

Didn't know what to expect, gave it shot, not the worst nor the best, that's about it when I was thinking what to say about this movie. The theme of the movie isn't really a thing I like to watch, find it a bit disgusting, so not my idea of fun for watching a movie. The acting was most of the time good but there are some passages where it lacked enthusiasm and it showed. I like movies with a satisfying ending but Allure isn't one of them. I don't regret watching it but won't watch it again.

It became messy. The constant out of nowhere outbursts. I wish the script had been better structured, because it had potential.

If you are going to tease the audience with the seductive trailer, then you also need to show some of it, but unfortunately it kept getting cut short of anything ever happening, which you'll know what I am talking about if you see it.

The writers/directors should have focused on the relationship between Laura and the teenage girl, but it just seemed to go into other directions that it didn't need to. It could have been a better film with the manipulative relationship between the older women and the teenage girl and raising the stakes of her wanting to leave or be discovered.

It just got weirder and weirder. And the acting was good, so it's just a shame. There were a lot of calm moments and then out of nowhere -- craziness -- and not in a good way.

The subject matter was just not handled right. The movie just went down hill, fast - unfortunately. Just too many things happened that weren't believable.