London Film Festival Review: Dionne Edwards’ ‘Pretty Red Dress’
deadline.comAn elaborately beaded red shimmy dress becomes a talisman of beauty, truth and freedom in Dionne Edwards’ debut feature, BFI London Film Festival premiere Pretty Red Dress, a vivid portrait of a family with at least one too many secrets lurking in the closet along with that alluring frock.
Candice, (Alexandra Burke) a thirtysomething supermarket check-out girl with a big voice and big theatrical ambitions, believes it will help turn her into Tina Turner; it is her chief prop at her successive auditions for a forthcoming musical.
But for her bad-boy partner Travis, (Natey Jones, throwing everything into a bravura performance) slipping his tattooed torso into that dress when nobody else is at home makes him feel at last like his real, whole self.
It is a self that is equal parts lipstick and beard, heels and muscles. It is also a self he can’t show to anyone. Travis has just come out of prison.
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