In Montreal-based photographers Carlos and Jason Sanchez’s feature debut Allure at TIFF, Evan Rachel Wood plays Laura, a 30-year-old who clearly carries a lot of damage. She lives alone, appears to have no friends, smokes and drinks excessively, has a lackluster day job playing cleaning lady and often spends her evenings making extra cash as a sex worker.
One morning while getting a tour of a new clients home she meets 16-year old Eva (former TIFF rising star Julia Sarah Stone) who poetically plays the piano. Days later, Eva freaks out when her overbearing and cold mother announces she’s sold the house to move in with a new boyfriend. Laura consoles the desperate girl and offers her a safe haven (just don’t tell mom).
Laura offers to hide Eva away as her mother desperately searches for her missing child. As she flip flops from wooing young Eva to frightening her innocent lover, it becomes evident that her heartbreaking behaviour points to mysterious hardships from the past. Laura’s struggle in Allure showcases to what lengths a broken spirit will manipulate to find love.
