2.0 out of 5.0 stars
“Inheritance,” released Jan. 24 and experimentally filmed entirely on an iPhone, completely lacked overall character depth and plot development. While director Neil Burger succeeded in creating interesting cinematography, he failed to direct the movie in a meaningful manner.
Burger wanted to use a smaller crew and cut down on camera set-up time while fulfilling his desire to travel for the shoot. Because of the nature of filming on an iPhone and traveling so much for the scenes, there were no rehearsal times, wait for camera set-ups or makeup checks. This quick-paced nature of filming could have impacted Phoebe Dynevor’s ability to portray deep emotional complexities in the main character, Maya.
At the beginning of the film, Maya is introduced as an impulsive and depressed young woman who has recently lost her mother. Maya and her sister are at the memorial for their late mother when their father (Rhys Ifans) shows up and attempts to reconcile with Maya after being out of the picture for both of their lives. He seems to have no interest in approaching the older sister, Jess, which is a strange decision the writers didn’t divulge. He convinces Maya that he has a real estate job for her that will pay extremely well, she just has to act as an escort for some buyers from Cairo to the United States.
Maya’s tendency to find herself in chaotic and busy locations didn’t reveal much about her character, besides spotlighting the techniques of their experimental filming.
The plot of the film itself was very convoluted and didn’t feel completely fleshed out. After starting in Cairo with her dad and finding out he is an ex-spy, her dad fakes his own kidnapping in order to get her to retrieve a hard drive for him in Delhi, which she believes will allow for his release. After finding a clue that her father is really in Seoul, she decides to go there instead of meeting with his “captors.” Maya finds her father living a double life with another woman and daughter in Seoul; he is not kidnapped and she is left doing his dirty work for him.
Even after receiving a photo from his “captors” of her father tied up and hurt, Dynevor shows little emotion. After being violently chased by police through the streets of Delhi on the back of a motorcycle, Dynevor seems only slightly fearful when the audience would expect nothing less than a panic attack. Even after watching her father and his other family in Seoul — the happy life she could have had with him as a child — Dynevor doesn’t shed a tear.
“Inheritance” did not follow through on its plans to be an exciting spy action movie, and instead leaves the viewers feeling like they must have missed some part of the movie where they actually got to know the main character. Beyond being an impulsive shoplifter and having an angsty disregard for her mental and physical well-being, Dynevor didn’t exhibit the pent-up sadness or rage that her character experienced to the full extent.
The only part of the movie where Maya cries is in the last 15 minutes. She is back in her apartment in New York and picks up what are presumably her mother’s old clothes and cries into them. The scene lasts about three seconds.
The best scene of the movie is when Maya confronts her father about his lies and holds his hard drive that contains top secret official government information over the side of a bridge. In one moment the entire mood shifts and it is exciting to finally see her father reveal who he truly is. That moment is a pivotal end to their relationship and sets up the ending of the movie, which feels much like a setup for a sequel. However, her decisions at the end of the movie feel a little too calculated. It would have been exciting to see all of these events drive Maya’s character to her impulsive edge with more of a breakthrough of emotion.
Some of the plot felt cheaply knit together. It just so happens to be that during her voyage to Seoul, Maya shares a train cart with the only other similar-looking white person the audience has seen between Egypt and India besides herself and her father. Because of this, Maya steals her passport and uses it to board a plane.
What gains the movie some of its dignity back is that the experimental filming was at least interesting to watch. It feels like a relevant choice to use shaky hand-held filming in many of the travel scenes and close-up shots. The film also makes use of a slight fish-eye lens for the chase scene on the motorcycle, which adds to the disjoined look of fear and confusion on Maya’s face.
It is not clear whether or not there will be a second movie, but if Dynevor truly wants to step out of her bubble following her success on “Bridgerton,” audiences may want to see more commitment to her skills in the action genre. “Inheritance” is an underbaked movie that only brushed at bigger questions about being a good person.
