Inheritance movie review: Lacklustre espionage thriller

Still from Inheritance

Film: Inheritance
Cast: Phoebe Dynevor, Rhys Ifans, José Alvarez
Director: Neil Burger
Rating: 1.5/5
Runtime: 101 min

Neil Burger‘s "Inheritance," with a globetrotting espionage narrative, is shot on an iPhone. So the visuals are choppy and the narrative spearheaded by the lovely Phoebe Dynevor is rather listless and disengaging. The film feels experimental and devoid of any polish.

Maya(Phoebe Dynevor), who is still reeling from the death of her mother, for whom she served as primary caretaker for the last nine months is surprised, as is her sister, Jess (Kersti Bryan), to see their long-absent and estranged father, Sam (Rhys Ifans), at the funeral services. In the early scenes we see her shoplifting vodka, clubbing, and picking up a random guy for sex. So later, when her father offers her a job with his real estate company in Cairo, for which she will be paid $1000, we know she'll take it up. Jess thinks that the whole thing sounds sketchy and advises Maya to reject the offer but Maya's desire to further her relationship with her father makes her take on the offer. She also manages to get a week's pay upfront.

But it's not long before she starts to question his story. She finds that Sam is traveling under a passport with a different name and it comes out Sam was into international espionage, before he went into real estate. Then things start to get dicey for Maya. One night at dinner, he leaves the table to answer a phone call and calls Maya to tell her to flee and that he will meet up with her later. She gets another call later, informing her that Sam has been kidnapped and that she needs to go to India and retrieve something from a safe deposit box in exchange for him. The agreed-upon exchange goes sideways, and she decides to head to Seoul to track down her father. But there are people in hot pursuit.

Burger's visual style is not inviting or exciting. A mid-film chase sequence livens up matters but it doesn't last. The guerilla style filming seems to indicate a lack of budget rather than a style statement. The approach begins to feel self-conscious.

The script by Burger and Olen Steinhauer does not have any surprises either. The twists and turns are predictable and obvious. The screenplay doesn't feel accomplished. As Maya travels from one country to another ( Egypt, India, South Korea) one doesn't get the feeling of tension or paranoia that she is supposedly experiencing.

The characters don't get fleshed out. They are typical of espionage thrillers but there's no real thrill here. Funny thing is that there's no shootout or high speed chases, just low key running around in narrow streets that feels old fashioned or decadent.

Dynevor, the British actress who had breakout roles on television in "Bridgerton" and the film "Fair Play, " looks lovely, suitably agitated and troubled but there's nothing deep about the performance. The rest of the cast are forgettable.

The shooting style and the unlettered script are the main challenges here and its hard to overcome that. This film looks like an amateurish attempt at film making. There's nothing entertaining for the viewer to cherish.