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FILM
Lucy PPPPP
(France) Action/fantasy. Written and directed by Luc Besson. Starring Scarlett Johansson,
Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-sik, Amr Waked. Category IIB. 90 minutes. Opened Aug 7.
There’s one problem with every movie that Luc Besson has ever written, directed or
even gazed at from the other end of a football field: to really, truly enjoy a Besson movie, you
have to leave each and every one of your critical faculties at the door. From “Taken” to “The Fifth
Element” to “The Transporter” to “From Paris with Love,” if you try to analyze a Besson movie
you’re guaranteed trouble. Which, of course, poses something of a problem for a reviewer.
After all, Besson’s latest may be ridiculous, implausible and stilted—but it’s also superb, silly fun.
The plot, such as it is: Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is an exchange student living in Taipei, doing
the silly things that exchange students do—drinking, dancing and ill-advised men. One of them
talks her into delivering a suitcase to a hotel, but the case is full of an experimental new drug.
The Korean gangsters she delivers it to open her up, sew the drugs inside her, and force her to
traffic them to Europe. But the bag leaks into her bloodstream and, as it turns out, this drug does
not cause your garden variety overdose. Instead, it allows Lucy to unlock the full power of her
brain. She goes from using only 10 percent of her mental capacity to 20, 30, 40 percent…
and in the process she goes full superhuman: controlling her own metabolism, altering radio and
TV waves, even the odd bit of telekinesis. But the more she can do, the less human she becomes.
What will she do with her newfound abilities, and how long does she have before her body
destroys itself? Can Morgan Freeman deliver his ponderous exposition with enough gravitas
that you forgive the logical leaps we’re all making here?
Yup, it’s ludicrous. Accept that—and accept that the premise is exactly the same as 2011’s
Bradley Cooper vehicle “Limitless”—and you’re treated to an enjoyable fast-paced thriller. Scarlett
Johansson is forever watchable, and it’s fun to see her do her action thing. As for the supporting
cast, Amr Waked (“Syriana”) is good as a handsome if bewildered French copper, and Korean
star Choi Min-sik (“Oldboy”) has a lot of hammy fun as the baddie. Morgan Freeman just… is.
Besson is of course a capable action director, and he even manages to squeeze in a Parisian
car chase, complete with adorably tiny cars. He’s also plenty quirky, using periodic jump-cuts
to snippets of documentary footage to labor a point the movie’s making, or just to convey an
additional sense of unreality. It’s all kinds of crazy, but it’s entertaining nonetheless—that’s the
Besson signature right there.
“Lucy” boasts some unbelievably clunky dialogue, but Besson has set it up beautifully:
After she ODs on the drug, Lucy’s speech patterns change into something alien and abstracted,
and they only get more so as her brain develops. It’s the perfect excuse for her to deliver longwinded
soliloquies. Similarly, Morgan Freeman is an eccentric professor: any and all ponderous
explanations are moderated by his mellifluous bass. Isn’t that, after all, the only reason he’s cast
in anything these days?
But despite his penchant for stilted dialogue, Besson doesn’t get too bogged down in
explication. Instead he just hurtles onwards into his superhuman fantasy, careful not to let too
much sense get in the way. Get on board, and it’s a fun ride. But while Lucy’s unlocking the full
potential of her brain’s ability, you’ll want to dial yours back to about 1 percent. Adam White
The Finishers
(France) “The Finishers” follows a fatherson
duo who train for, compete in, and
finish a triathalon together, despite the fact
that the son is wheelchair-bound. You can
tell just how weepy and sentimental it’ll be
from the song that plays through the trailer
alone: “Hoppipolla” by Sigur Rós, aka the
Most Inspirational Song Ever Written. But it’s
not all melodrama. Director Nils Tavernier
is a documentary maker, so you can expect
things to be hard-hitting, realist—and super,
duper inspirational.
Frances Ha
(USA) Indie filmmaker Noah Baumbach
directs this black-and-white delight about
the tumultuous life of a woman in her late
20s. The titular Frances Halladay is played by
Greta Gerwig (who cowrote the movie along
with Baumbach), an “undateable” dancer
with a pipedream of joining a modern dance
company. Intelligent, absurd and chock-full
of energy, it’s a slice-of-life movie perfect
for any 20-something or office drone
dreamer who ever wondered: “Where is
my life going?”
38 HK MAGAZINE FRIDAY, Auguts 15, 2014