Film Review: Lucy

Lucy. Rated MA15+ (strong themes and violence). 89 minutes. Written and directed by Luc Besson.

Verdict: A fine idea about our human potential is wasted in this violent fantasia.

Like Neil Burger’s Limitless (2011), Besson’s exploration of the effect of mind-altering substances on the human brain promises the world and delivers very little. It all starts smartly enough, with Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) and her new boyfriend Richard (Pilou Asbæk) arguing over who will deliver a briefcase with mysterious contents to a guest at a fashionable hotel in Taiwan.

When Richard is ruthlessly dispatched, Lucy becomes an unwilling accomplice to an international crime syndicate, who surgically implant a plastic bag full of blue crystallised powder into her stomach. When the plastic bag breaks as a result of one of Besson’s many random acts of gratuitous violence, her body absorbs the substance, resulting in rapidly escalating superhuman powers.

Known for his sci-fi thriller The Fifth Element (1997) and as one of the writers of Taken (2008) and Taken 2 (2012), Besson’s obsession with violence reduces what might have been a film of great ideas to a veritable bloodbath. Morgan Freeman, as the stately professor who Lucy finds to help her understand her new-found neurological potential, spends much of the time looking dazed and confused by all the silliness going on around him.

Johansson works wonders with the questionable ethics and morals of the material, and while she is a much better actress than most of it, the depth of her engagement with the character ensures that the film works a good deal more effectively than it might have.

But within all the ill-conceived chaos, lies a fine idea about just how little of our potential we realise throughout our lives. Why Besson didn’t chose to make a film about this far more interesting thread instead of the clichéd, drug-dealing gangsters plot, will forever remain a mystery.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Now You See Me

Now You See Me. Rated M (mature themes, coarse language and sexual references). 116 minutes. Directed by Louis Leterrier. Screenplay by Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt.

Verdict: This curiously unengaging heist tale fails to equal the sum of its parts.

Occasionally, a promotional trailer will flash across the screen that makes a film look intriguing. It won’t reveal much about the plot, but the flashy effects and instantly recognisable cast will ensure that the film’s impending release registers in our consciousness.

Such is the case with this Now You See Me – an over-produced story about four street magicians who are invited by a mysterious mentor to form a group known as The Four Horsemen, and use their combined creative powers to perform daring heists around the world.

Leterrier (Clash of the Titans) has assembled an outstanding cast, led by Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) as one of the four magicians, and Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers, Shutter Island) as an FBI agent tasked with breaking the cycle of increasingly ambitious robberies the group manage to pull off – right under everyone’s noses.

It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to watch Morgan Freeman, and his performance as Thaddeus Bradley – a man who has dedicated his life to revealing the secrets behind magic acts – is a gem. Equally, Michael Caine devours his brief but critical turn as the wealthy philanthropist, who suddenly finds himself to be nothing more than a powerless pawn in The Four Horsemen’s grand plan.

The central relationship between Ruffalo’s Dylan and Mélanie Laurent’s Interpol agent Alma fails to ring true, and if there is a flaw in the otherwise interesting screenplay, it’s that the human relationships are left wanting in the presence of the glossy magic acts. We are left with the sense of not being particularly engaged in the lives of the main characters, but rather impressed by all the technological wizardy that make the unbelievably fantastic heists possible. With a generous injection of more heart and soul, this is a film that might have been a good deal more involving than it ends up being.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.