When reviewing a film, reading the director’s statement can feel an awful lot like checking their will. What an artist intended with the choices they left behind won’t always matter to the audience, but Neil Burger’s “Inheritance” is worth researching before you buy the ticket. Knowing how this strangely pedestrian thriller got produced not only makes it far more enjoyable to watch but highlights a new storytelling approach that might work better on the second try.
Captured on location in Egypt, India, South Korea, and New York City, IFC Films’ latest experiment in suspense — a father-daughter espionage adventure starring Phoebe Dynevor and Rhys Ifans — uses a naturalistic shooting style that spurred some great behind-the-scenes stories. Known for films like “Limitless” and “Divergent,” Burger aimed to make another slippery psychological drama with mainstream action appeal, but this time, he tried to give it some added oomph by boosting the authenticity. Many of the so-called “actors” in “Inheritance” are real people who unknowingly encountered Burger’s small cast and crew, who mostly made the film in public using an iPhone.
The story of “Inheritance” is largely scripted but flexible enough to account for that unpredictability to a point. The plot follows the steely Maya (Dynevor) as she grapples with the revelation that her father, Sam (Ifans), is a dangerous spy who has just been kidnapped. What’s worse, she’s been tasked with brokering her dad’s release in exchange for an iPad that’s chockful of valuable international secrets. Soon, she’s fending off an intimidating INTERPOL agent (Necar Zadegan), escaping various pursuers on the back of a scooter, and getting a crash course in the family business — all while bouncing between continents.
The action evokes something like a student-made “Tomb Raider,” and the more emotional beats would be wholly unremarkable if not for the unique real-world obstacles facing Burger’s performers. According to press notes, Dynevor stayed in character throughout filming, even taking a swig of liquor on a public sidewalk (before getting grilled by the NYPD) and stealing an expensive pair of sunglasses from an airport kiosk (before the crew sneakily returned the item). The fallout from those specific interactions didn’t make the final cut of “Inheritance,” but they create an unpolished tone that makes this smart-yet-sloppy heroine feel significantly more original than the familiar narrative might otherwise allow.
The filmmaker co-wrote the script with Olen Steinhauer. The conspiracy at its center is compelling enough but might have done better with dialogue that was less noirish. Chunky proclamations draw attention to the film’s most cliched tendencies — like when Maya reveals that her mother is dead (a classic backstory!) and declares to her father of their complicated grief, “The guilt hit me like a shovel to the skull.” That’s a reasonable enough line for a low-budget spy thriller but doesn’t gel with the guerilla style Burger wanted to direct. Still, Dynevor and Ifans do their best to present these bursts of accidental melodrama in a straightforward manner. More forgiving audiences may be able to accept them as organic occurrences in a world that vaguely resembles a lo-fi “Jessica Jones,” but they do little to make Maya or Sam more likable and the duo’s chemistry is virtually nonexistent.
With just two days to make the handoff and secure Sam’s safety, “Inheritance” starts a ticking clock for Maya that somehow fails to ratchet up the tension beyond the first few turns. The copious amounts of sunlight in the film can make for a monotonous sameness, and for all her efforts to seem cool, Dynevor’s stoicism falls flat against that backdrop. That said, if you know about the “hidden camera” quality underlying this at-times sluggish movie, you can find plenty to appreciate in the periphery of its shortcomings. Realizing that the strange men who leer at Dynevor from almost every corner in the film were in fact processing their brush with a Hollywood A-lister is fascinating to watch. As the “Bridgerton” actress scrambles through train cars and back alleyways, her striking looks collide with reality to produce a ripple of recognition that’s not obvious but fun to spot when you can.
In the context of Burger’s legacy (a real mixed bag ever since “The Illusionist”), “Inheritance” is hardly a crown jewel. It’s predictable, one-note, and a knock against Dynevor as a viable action star — despite her next three projects all being described as thrillers. Even still, the making-of story is well worth hunting down and can make this broadly underwhelming movie almost worth the watch. Who knows when a major filmmaker will try this idea again but the basic structure is worth passing down.
Grade: C
From IFC Films, “Inheritance” is in theaters January 24.
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