Lucy

Released:  July 25^th, 2014

Rated:  R

Studio:  Columbia

Staring:  Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Amr Waked, Choi Min-Sik

Directed by:  Luc Besson

Written by:  Luc Besson

Personal Bias Alert:  likes smart thrillers, knows science

4.5 of 10

            2014 perhaps best epitomizes Scarlett Johansson’s career.  She’s been in four major releases (I’m counting “Under the Skin”), which span from big summer blockbusters to science fiction art films.  Their budgets ranged from $13-$170 million and have made between $2.5 and $713 million worldwide.  Her roles have included a quipy spy, a charming restaurant hostess, and a near-mute alien discovering humanity.   My point is, it’s been varied.  Johansson’s doggedly avoided being typecast throughout her career, and while that may have dimmed her star power, it’s earned her the respect of many film fans, including myself.

            “Lucy” gives her the opportunity to be a badass, although not in the most traditional sense.  While being forced to act as a drug mule, her character, Lucy, absorbs a large amount of a new drug that allows her to access all parts of her brain.  This somehow makes her superhuman, with power over gravity, matter, and generally all rules of science.  She’s by far the most powerful person on the planet, so she’s got that calm, cool, smartest-person-in-the-room aura going on.  Add in that her rapidly increasing intellect disconnects her from human emotions, and you’ve got a character that can and does walk into a room of armed gangsters without blinking an eye.  There’s a cool badassery to that, and it’s the kind of role Johansson is definitely capable of.

            Written and directed by Luc Besson, “Lucy” exudes his trademark stylishness.  The action sequences are the focus, and while they are often relatively straightforward gunfights, Besson and long-time cinematographer Thierry Arbogast film them in such a way that they slide pleasantly along.  They’re always entertaining, but never really thrilling.  The whole film feels imbued with a sort of mediocrity, and I get the sense that that’s exactly what Besson was shooting for.  He wanted a slick little action film for an attractive actress to slink her way through, and that’s exactly what he made.

            Where this film catches for me, and where I think it will catch for anyone who keeps their brain turned on while watching it, is in the absurdity of its central premise.  The whole thing’s based on junk science, the long-debunked idea that there are parts of our brain that we don’t use.  This would be fine if it was only brought up as a way to explain her intelligence and then was quickly dropped, but no, this film keeps it at the forefront, constantly going back to it and horrifyingly building on it until nearly every plot point is based on a variety of junk science ideas.  Now I’m not arguing that Besson or anyone involved actually thinks this is real science.  No, I think they are just using it as a means to an end, an easy way to get to the extraordinary final scene.  The end sequence still makes no sense from a scientific perspective, but it’s so gorgeous to look at that I, for the first time in the film, felt a thrill.

            The scientific inaccuracies grate on me so much because I care greatly about science.  I’m aware that most people won’t have this hurdle to overcome, but I think the overall lack of care given to the story and the characters will grate on anyone who wants something with some heft.  “Lucy” is knowingly style over substance, and if that’s cool with you, then go have fun seeing this film.

            Other Notes:

Ø  I assume Johansson was told to overact at the beginning?

Ø  I think they did some ADR of Morgan Freeman explaining the ending, and it was remarkably bad.  It was far louder than any of the dialogue had been up to that point and sounded far too clean.

Ø  I’m sorry, but I have to correct this:  evolution does not have purpose.  There is no end goal in mind.

Ø  Felt like way longer than 1 hour 29 minutes.