‘Inheritance’ Review: Phoebe Dynevor and Rhys Ifans in Neil Burger’s Uninvolving iPhone Spy Thriller

Sometimes, the more a movie strains for realness the more fake it seems. Such is the case with the new thriller directed by Neil Burger (Divergent, Limitless) that was filmed in so many colorful international locations you practically feel the need for a passport just to watch it.

Storywise, Inheritance is nothing if not routine, a by-the-numbers suspenser about a young woman, Maya (Phoebe Dynevor of Bridgerton and Fair Play), who discovers that her father (Rhys Ifans) is not a successful businessman dealing in international real estate but rather a former spy involved in nefarious goings-on. The film’s chief distinction is that it was shot entirely on an iPhone, supposedly allowing for greater freedom and spontaneity as the cast and crew were able to shoot in real locations without making much of a fuss. So why does it feel more artificial than your typical Mission: Impossible entry?

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Maybe because the hyper-realistic filming style only serves to make us more, rather than less, aware of the cinematic efforts involved. A lengthy sequence, involving Dynevor riding on the back of a motorcycle through a crowded urbanscape, is clearly aiming for an immersive immediacy but instead merely feels awkward. There are endless scenes of Dynevor walking briskly through crowded city streets, the camera following her like a stalker, and you mainly wind up being impressed by how much exercise both she and the cameraman are getting.

The screenplay by Burger and Olen Steinhauer feels as generic as a video game, from Maya finding her father’s passports featuring fake names to his being supposedly kidnapped to the hard drive containing top-secret documents that might as well be labeled “MacGuffin.” The film moves so briskly that for a while you can tolerate the contrivances, and the real-life locations — including New York City, Cairo, New Delhi and Seoul — rival that of any James Bond film. Indeed, it’s kind of fun watching the lead actors striding through the various cities, the bystanders presumably unaware that they’re bit players in an international espionage storyline.

It also helps that Dynevor, clearly a star on the rise, displays a fiercely compelling and increasingly edgy screen presence, and that Ifans is such an interesting actor that he’s able to invest his character with intriguing shades of ambiguity. You can tell they’re both enjoying the guerilla-style filmmaking tactics, free of such encumbrances as boom mikes, key lights and large crews in their line of sight.   

But the gimmickry ultimately wears thin and you find yourself thinking less about the inventive way the scenes were shot (there’s a sequence featuring the lead actors on a plane that was apparently filmed without permission, which, by the way, Michael Mann did way back in 1986’s Manhunter) than the flimsy narrative. Inheritance keeps attempting to pump up the suspense, as with a scene in which Maya’s father calls her at a restaurant and tells her “Leave, now!” — but the plot gears grind away so mechanically that you’re never emotionally involved. 

Coming across like the most accomplished student film ever made, Inheritance seems less designed as a viewing experience than a very clever way to pad its creators’ frequent flyer accounts.