The Lure is the first Polish musical ever and is modern reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, but don’t think Disney. The Lure sets the fairy tale in the seedy nightclub world of 1980s Poland and takes away the magic while keeping the mystical legend logic with a dangerous catch for any human being that crosses their path. If you enjoy foreign films, setting mystical legends in a modern setting and musicals, then definitely check out The Lure, but there are subtitles, surreal moments, sexual situations and violence.
The Lure mainly is about two mermaid sisters and follows an oneiric logic in the way that the narrative mostly gives impressions of what is happening instead of clearly explaining the events. The Lure is also the sisters’ stage name, which makes sense since their siren song attracts men to them and gives them popularity in the nightclub world. The two sisters have very different reasons for being on land and different personalities. One sister, Silver, is enchanted by life on land because she loves the guitarist, who is pretty frank about how he thinks about her. The other sister, Golden, sees the land for what is-a dingy replica of nature filled with repulsive creatures who do not interest her unless she wants something from them. Both human beings and mermaids are guilty of thinking less of the other for being different while denying their mutual attraction to each other’s world.
The Lure uses The Little Mermaid as a tale about artistic integrity. Initially the girls are just excited to be back up singers and are wide-eyed innocents in the big city. Then they begin to find their voice and take the lead. My favorite song in The Lure was when the sisters embraced a punk girl persona, perform in black outfits and start thrashing on the stage. Then Silver’s desires threatens the group’s existence and destroys her voice so Golden must find solace in other artistic venues and bears the brunt of artistic criticism from someone immune to her charms. Golden reminded me of Kathleen Hanna, whom I learned about in the documentary, The Punk Singer, as the more feminist singer who discerns the exploitation and strikes out in anger to remind them that she can never be tamed. Can she mature as an artist and survive without her sister or should she just give up and return home?
The Lure is really into sexual logistics and emerging adolescence. Mermaids/sirens don’t have any vaginas, but there is a small hole in the tail. People view their transformation from human form to mermaid as a mesmerizing burlesque act. Even though they are being exploited sexually and financially, each sister enjoys different aspects of it: an opportunity to wield terrible power or fall in love. Being attracted to a mermaid/siren can be very dangerous, and there is a lot of vagina dentata and phallic imagery in the flip side to their alluring nature. The Lure presents the alternative: conforming to safe sexuality, which only leads in mutilation, pain or death for the woman and leaves the man disgusted by blood and his lover’s body. The Lure characterizes female sexuality as inherently dangerous, but when tamed, inherently suicidal. The Lure implicitly asks who is the actual siren: the mermaid sisters or the guitarist tempting them to crash on the rocks (n’ roll). The Lure is a tragic coming of age story.
I have plenty of unanswered questions, but am also confident that the answers are in the story waiting for you to engage in repeat viewings. Was the guitarist the lead singer’s son? Was the lead singer secretly having an affair with him? Was it just a fantasy or was the lead singer the two sisters’ mother? Did she have the life that Silver wanted? What happened to the cop? Why did the guitarist, the lead singer and her husband almost die after dumping the sisters? How did that woman know how to cure them? I wish that we had followed the donor’s life after the big switch.
The only thing that The Lure was missing was David Bowie, God rest his soul. Kinga Preis, the lead singer, was a mixture of a world weary Marlene Dietrich and a sexier Amy Poehler. I have to applaud The Lure for using I Feel Love, which is the ultimate siren song of the 1970s. The lyrics were hard to follow because some things get lost in translation, but I enjoyed it. I’m delighted that The Lure used musical logic and inexplicably had every one dancing occasionally. I particularly enjoyed The Lure mixing multiple genres in one story. It may not be Baz Luhrmann, but it is a pessimistic delight.
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The mermaids are sisters of dragons so they will remind American audiences of vampires and British audiences of The Lair of the White Worm meets Vamp, which is what attracted me to The Lure. I’m glad that The Lure finally gives audiences a movie where the dangerous sister survives because she usually gets punished. I’m talking to you, Kiss of the Damned.