A Disappointing Continuation

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

I never knew this story was based on true events until I read about it after I watched it. It's actually really sad. Here you have this 15 year old girl from Trinidad (Layla), played by Jessica Sula who was taken care of by her grandparents. She was sent to London to finally go live with her mother who seems to be irritated but happy that she is there at the same time. There, Layla tries her hardest to do what her mom says and fit in at school. As I watch Layla, I can't help but think of other teenagers her age in the same situation. Wanting to change her clothes, her look, and her hair just to fit in. She finally meets a popular local rapper (Troy) played by Lucien Laviscount. Troy is immediately infatuated by Layla and puts her in his video. Another boy who likes her is Shaun, who is played by Ntonga Mwanza. For some reason, Troy and his gang don't like Shaun and almost bully him but Layla likes him as a friend and this infuriates Troy. Troy and Layla date but Layla soon finds out who he really is and who her so called friends are. But Layla is "weak" and gets caught up in a lot more than she bargains for. Classic set up. I liked this movie for the message and hoped when it ended that it all worked out for her seeing as the movie left off as a cliffhanger.

Many are judging this movie to be another typical British 'gang' movie when this is not what it is at all. Honey Trap is about a beautiful 15 year old girl named Layla who has never known this lifestyle before. Moving over to brixton from Trinidad after living with her grandparents for so long, Layla moves in with her uncaring mother whom she has never really known. She gets sucked into this wonderful yet crappy world where she meets the local handsome rapper Troy who is a bit shifty. Layla is besotted with him. Its her first time in love. She falls so hard, but unfortunately, troy doesn't feel the same way and turns out to be another bad boy. But when troys rival, Sean falls for Layla, troy cannot help but to be jealous and envious and claims Layla as his and his only. In a sad way, Layla sort of likes it. All these beautiful and sad events lead up to one big final tragic one. Give it a chance.

This was based on a real case of inter gang rivalry and a heartless honey trap to get one of the members. I remember how heartless the whole thing was. This film takes the basic premise and turns it into something altogether more human. Jessica Sula plays fifteen year Layla. She has come from Trinidad to live with her maternal mother in Brixton, South London. Once there she starts to make new 'friends' at her school. They are mostly the sort who would be considered a 'bad influence' and she struggles to fit in. She does catch the eye of Alpha male and rapper Troy (Lucien Laviscount) and she drawn in caught by his macho charms. There is also Sean – who is an outsider within the group – he seems to be looked down on because of a perceived femininity however, he falls for Layla. This is something that will not be tolerated. This is though a story of lust, jealousy, anime, bullying and the need to belong. The subjects are all dealt with in a responsible way and everyone puts in great performances. Jessica Sula is particularly good playing the out of water, new kid on the block who has a good heart but will not let her head rule it. The location shooting is all authentic too and that gives this much more credibility. This is a film that did not garner that much attention on release and I was not expecting great things and I have to say I was extremely pleasantly surprised – one that is easy to recommend.

The IMDb description somewhat ruins the climax to this movie, the storyline which is explained in the films description doesn't occur until the final 10 minutes of the movie. Honeytrap is a story of bullying, manipulation and the struggle a young girl living in London faces while trying to be accepted somewhere that she doesn't belong. Jessica Sula plays Layla, a 15 year old girl who has returned to London to live with her mother after spending her previous 10 years living in Trinidad & Tobago with her grandparents. She is forced to attend a poor school and is immediately picked on for being different, she dresses different and speaks different and immediately tries to change who she is. She meets a local rapper and stars in his video shoot, he uses her and shows her stop-start attention to which she gets carried away with and falls in love with him. Little does she know that he is only using her to make another boy jealous and to massage his own ego and fulfil his own selfish desires.Jessica Sula gives the performance of the movie, her acting is very impressive and her character is especially remarkable. She connects with her role very well and gives a perfectly convincing performance. She plays a naïve, scared young girl living in a strange city, trying to adapt to a chilling way of life. The majority of the supporting cast do a respectable job in making the story feel gritty but Jessica Sula outshines them all. This is a low budget, independent film and this needs to be remembered when viewing. Many of the faces you see you will not recognise and the director is very new to the industry. It does have its negatives, some scenarios feel forced and clichéd and more backstory and character development would have been nice to see. This film had the opportunity to push more boundaries to create more depth to the story but with a run time of 90 minutes it failed to do so. Despite the negatives I have, Honeytrap had many things which I liked and overall I will remember this movie as a positive. Honeytrap is not a film you should watch if you are looking for an easy watching film. It is dark and gritty; it has some very powerful, hard hitting scenes and its aim is to open its viewer's eyes to situations that are all too common. It is loosely based around true events that occurred in 2008 and this makes it all the more depressing. Young girls can be so naïve and easily influenced by older boys who they wrongly look up to and admire, Honeytrap is a chilling look at how this can happen and its devastating consequences.7/10