Written and Directed by Luc Besson
**1/2 (two and a half stars)
In my most recent posting for Director James Gunn's "Guardians Of The Galaxy," I remarked that I felt that the film was decidedly and unfortunately more pedestrian and commonplace than we are all being led to believe by the studio, trailers and even the filmmakers themselves. It was a film that frankly, left me feeling more than a little bored because of how the film was executed, racing along on terribly familiar Summer movie beats and paths, too much so for my comfort.
Now, I arrive at the action/science fiction/psychedelic thriller "Lucy" from Writer/Director Luc Besson and I can easily say to you that not for even one moment was I remotely bored with this film as it is a propulsive experience filled wall-to-wall of its brisk 89 minute running time with all manner of surprises, thrills, growing intensity and more than a few "WTF?" moments that kept me at rapt attention throughout as well as being notably entertained. However, once I left the theater and then went through the remainder of my afternoon before being able to sit down to write, I realized that "Lucy" for all of its undeniable energy and creativity, didn't quite hold up very well and even moreso, it just didn't stick to the cinematic ribs.
Scarlett Johansson, who is clearly on a roll these days, stars as the titular Lucy, a 25 year old student living in Taipei, Taiwan who is unwittingly coerced by her shady boyfriend into being a drug mule for the crime lord Mr. Jung (Choi Min-sik). Lucy delivers a briefcase filled with the highly coveted, blue tinged synthetic known as CPH4, and is soon captured, held prisoner and forcibly has a pouch of the drug sewn into her abdomen for the purpose of having the drug transported to Europe.
While held captive, Lucy is beaten and kicked in the abdomen by her tormentors, a move which unexpectedly releases the drug into Lucy's bloodstream and neurological system causing a chain reaction where Lucy's brain capacity increases rapidly from the (so-called) standard 10%, thus giving her extraordinary mental and physical capabilities, including telekinesis, the instantaneous absorption of information, the inability to feel pain and even mental time travel. As Lucy's abilities continue to advance, and her hunting of Mr. Jung and his minions grows more lethal and relentless, Lucy is also faced with the reality that once her brain capacity reaches 100%, existence as she knows it will be rendered non-existent.
Dear readers, it would not be an overreach of any kind to inform you that "Lucy" grabs you from the first moments and refuses to release you for its entirety. What Luc Besson has achieved once again was to design a visually kinetic experience in which all of the images and action sequences pop from the screen in ways that are continuously inventive and often thrilling. Fight sequences, wrong way car chases through the streets of Paris, and shoot-outs featuring seemingly an army of participants are all rendered with style, panache, superior skill and craftsmanship...and with no dreaded shaky cams whatsoever thank you!
With the character of Lucy, Besson has now added one more female warrior to his arsenal alongside the ones seen in his previous films "La Femme Nikita" (1990) "Leon: The Professional" (1994), and of course, the interstellar dream pop of "The Fifth Element" (1997) and the sight is indeed a welcome one especially with Scarlett Johansson as the human conduit. Her physicality is sleek yet brutally unforgiving yet she always allows us in the audience to try and empathize with her condition and the increasingly bleak situation she has found herself in.
There were times when I often felt that "Lucy" shared elements from Director John Carpenter's "Escape From New York" (1981) as both films are essentially "ticking bomb" thrillers. With "Escape From New York," that film's anti-hero Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) had a finite amount of time to rescue the President Of The United States (Donald Pleasence), albeit reluctantly, or else the bomb planted inside of brain would explode. In "Lucy," Besson gives us something that leans more towards the metaphysical.
As Lucy's brain power develops, as represented by occasional title cards informing us of what brain percentage she is currently using, we realize that she is heading towards some sense of oblivion, even as she is simultaneously experiencing a sense of inter-connectivity with people, the environment, the universe and even the space-time continuum itself. Johansson magically finds the means to communicate this existential crisis, making "Lucy" a film that valiantly tries to works as something more than just a "Lucy," the character and the film seem to be questioning of us to examine exactly what good and worth is being able to access an unprecedented level of knowledge if you will potentially not be of any physical and mental state to ever truly utilize it?
I suppose that if Besson only wanted his film to exist as a shoot-em-up, he could have easily chosen to perform that feat. So, I do appreciate the attempt to bring something heftier to the table than artillery and explosions. That being said, "Lucy" never really seemed to entirely hold water. Not through any sense of plot holes but the connective tissue just felt to be faulty and flimsy, regardless of how enthusiastically Luc Besson was driving the material.
To the criticisms of the entire conceit of "Lucy" falling apart because we do happen to utilize more than 10% of our brain power normally I will pay that no nevermind, mostly because this exact same premise was utilized in the Bradley Cooper starring vehicle "Limitless" (2011) and no one was jumping up and down in protest when that film came out. My issue with the film is that the entire structure of the film seems to be inventing itself upon the spot, making for an experience that it not really tethered to anything. Besson does tend to have a certain dream-like quality to some of his films, especially "The Fifth Element," which did feel like a dream spinning around cab driver's Korben Dallas' (played by Bruce Willis) brain.
No matter how convincing and committed Johansson and Morgan Freeman (who portrays Professor Samuel Norman, a scientist and doctor who befriends Lucy on her odyssey) are throughout the film, "Lucy" flies by on a stream of consciousness akin to a child making up an elaborate tale, adding and subtracting details on the smallest of whims. Certainly, there are aspects of "Lucy" designed to have you recall The Wachowski's "The Matrix" (1999) and I also found myself often thinking about the great, and equally propulsive, psychedelic thriller "Hanna" (2001) from Director Joe Wright. Yet both of those films carried a certain tangible weight that kept the film firmly planted on the ground no matter how high flying the story became. "Lucy," by contrast feels as if it will float off into the ether just as Lucy herself threatens to.
Also, and really based upon Scarlett Johansson's performance, "Lucy" gives us a leading heroine which seems to split the difference between her work as Black Widow in the Marvel Comics films, Writer/Director Spike Jonze's outstanding "Her" (2013) and undoubtedly as the nameless predatory alien in Director Jonathan Glazer's inimitable "Under The Skin" from earlier this year. In fact, "Lucy" could possibly be seen as "Under The Skin" in reverse, as that film depicted an alien slowly discovering a sense of humanity, "Lucy" gives us a character who is slowly losing her humanity.
Aside from that aspect, "Lucy" is a film that further demonstrates exactly how audacious a film like "Under The Skin" actually is and even though that film may be too impenetrable for some viewers, I would urge you to see that film instead of "Lucy" as it does contain Scarlett Johansson's most daring, unique and completely commanding performance inside of an overall film experience that is unlike anything else that you will see this year. And trust me, I guarantee that "Under The Skin" is an experience that will continue to haunt you long after you see it. It is a film that I have not remotely forgotten and it often returned to the forefront of my brain as I was watching "Lucy."
All in all, and like "Guardians Of The Galaxy," Luc Besson's "Lucy" is OK, a near miss of a film that is admittedly riveting to view from beginning to end. But, please do not be surprised if you find that your own brain capacity is just not strong enough for the film to remain terribly memorable afterwards...or also, for it to make that much sense as you're watching it in the first place.
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