Argh - it’s another tear-jerker next and this time I do sob like a damn baby. 2020’s Lucy Shimmers and the Prince of Peace is all about how a precocious little girl forms an unlikely bond with a tough convict when they’re both confined to the same hospital and it definitely works hard to manipulate the emotions. This is mostly down to the phenomenal performance of youngster Scarlett Diamond as Lucy. Diamond is the granddaughter of the movie’s director Rob Diamond but this kid surely wasn’t cast just through nepotism - she’s genuinely fantastic with her captivating turn elevating a very low-budget film.
Lucy is a pleasant little Christian pre-schooler - cute, funny and polite. We meet her at the start of December getting set for Christmas, with things taking a spooky turn when we realise she converses with the ghost of her recently deceased grandfather. It’s cute until Gramps’ force ghost hints that they’ll be together real soon. Uh oh. Lucy starts coughing a bit though mum and dad think nothing of it. But we know. Oh Jesus, we know.
We then meet massive, tattooed prison inmate Edgar (Vincent Vargas) stuck in hospital as the doctors and prison guards debate his chances of survival. Edgar’s a stubborn, angry dude who needs a kidney transplant soon or he’s done for. You can see where this is all going.
Yup, soon Lucy is in hospital with life-threatening pneumonia where she crosses paths with this menacing colossus. It’s an adorable case of opposites attract with the kid being so pure of heart that she’s not at all put off by this big, scary guy and soon warms his frosty heart. It’s trite, predictable fare but this gifted child actress really makes me believe it. Diamond easily out-acts everyone else in the film, including the actress playing her mom (Florencia Contreras Stevens) who gives a performance as wooden as a Christmas ornament.
Little Lucy wanders the hospital making sick people feel better about things and spreading the hopeful word of Christ - the title-istic “Prince of Peace”. There’s little plot to speak of, with this being more the story of a gradual softening of an angry man’s heart. It’s affecting watching this beast of a man being schooled by an innocent child, with Diamond’s performance feeling more like beautifully natural ad-libbing rather than scripted dialogue.
This all feels very much like the way a real five-year-old would act and more than once Lucy reminds me of my own lovely daughter. So much so in fact that when I lf think out loud “crap, she’s going to die, isn’t she?”, I’m properly devastated.
This is a cliched tale of forgiveness, about how little ones can help us see past the bullshit we project onto others and recognise when someone just needs some love. From the film’s title, I honestly thought this was going to be some awful, low-budget kiddie fantasy fare, so it catches me by surprise. Though heavily exploitative, it’s strangely both emotionally devastating and uplifting at the same time. My emotions are all over the place right now. I love it anyway.
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