It has been interesting to watch directors fiddle with the kind of filmmaking technology we’re all carrying around in our pockets. Long before he made “Anora,” Sean Baker shot his screwball comedy “Tangerine” on an iPhone. Steven Soderbergh has done this too, for his thriller “Unsane” and sports drama “High Flying Bird.” Charlie Kaufman’s poetic short film “Jackals and Fireflies” was shot on a Samsung Galaxy, and Danny Boyle’s upcoming zombie movie “28 Years Later” was made with an iPhone, too. And of course, scores of documentaries use footage shot on phones, for obvious reasons.
Innovation in the movies has been driven by technological advances; shrinking camera sizes made it easier to shoot on location or in motion and the introduction of sound, color and digital cameras fundamentally changed the way filmmakers think. So it makes sense that the incredibly lightweight, powerful and portable cameras that smartphones provide would enter the mix. The challenge, though, is to make a movie that people want to watch, something that stands out from whatever they could just do themselves. The auteurs I listed above mostly sell it, using the unique look and light footprint of the camera to the advantage of their stories. The form follows the movie’s function.
Unfortunately, “Inheritance” is not one of those. Directed by Neil Burger (who made “The Illusionist,” “Limitless,” and the first “Divergent”), who wrote the screenplay with Olen Steinhauer, it is definitely trying for something: a globe-hopping tale of intrigue and betrayal, starring Phoebe Dynevor in a very un-“Bridgerton” role. She is Maya, a sullen and directionless young woman who spent the last year or two caring for her dying mother. Now her mother’s gone, and Maya is both grieving and exhilarated by the newfound freedom.
When her estranged father (Rhys Ifans) shows up at the funeral, Maya wants nothing to do with him. But then he offers her a job that pays well and sounds glamorous, showing rich clients around different cities while they wait for some kind of real estate transaction to clear. She hops on a plane with him to Cairo.
Maya sets off on a multi-continental pursuit of her father, or maybe a wild-goose chase. She’s always trying to figure out what’s going on. We’re already a step or two ahead of her.
That’s part of the problem: A thriller works only when the audience is thrilled. But there are other problems with “Inheritance.” Maya’s character is woefully underdeveloped, seemingly defined by her cynical attitude, penchant for shoplifting and wobbly American accent. Her father repeatedly tells her that she is driven and competent, but if that’s true, we’ve seen no evidence of it. Judging from mini-sermons delivered by minor characters throughout the film about Maya’s mother, there’s also some kind of point about what it means to be a good person, but it’s more of a wild gesture at a hackneyed idea than a thought.
But it’s really the way the film was made that sucks all the fun out of it. The concept seems to have been to make a lot of the film guerrilla-style, just dropping down onto the streets of Mumbai, Cairo or wherever and turn on the camera. Indeed, Burger has spoken of an “experimental style of shooting” that eschewed rehearsals and camera setups in favor of something more loose.
Unfortunately, it shows. The characters’ lines occasionally feel like they’re being read rather than acted. You can imagine this technique working for a movie aiming to look and feel like a documentary, all shaky hand-held footage that occasionally feels like the filmmaker is racing behind the character. But that’s not “Inheritance.” It’s underbaked and baffling to watch, with little tension or interest to pull us through.
If you’re going to risk making a movie with the same device many of us use to document our children’s birthdays and the concert we went to last weekend, then you’ve really got to sell it. And not only does “Inheritance” fail to sell its aesthetic; it doesn’t sell its story, either. Sometimes you wish you’d just stayed home.
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