Inheritance

The ONLY reason this absolute atrocity deemed 4 stars from me was through Simon Pegg's performance. Lily Collins was absolute dreck in this ridiculous blunder. The anorgasmic "twist" was blatantly obvious within the first hour of this bloody mess. Do yourself a favor and don't waste a moment of your precious life on this absolute rubbish of a plot.

This movie has gotten consistently mediocre to poor ratings from various professional viewers. The premise is very interesting but highly unlikely, and many of the choices of the various characters seem unusual and unlikely. Still, my wife and I were entertained, as a Tuesday evening viewing at home on the Kanopy site it entertained us more than many recent movies.

Very cute but maybe too young Lily Collins is powerful NYC prosecutor Lauren Monroe. When her wealthy and influential dad dies suddenly and the will is executed she receives an inheritance she wishes she could give back. Dad's video on the USB drive and a set of keys gets the story into its main thrust. Lauren has to clean up the mess but has no idea how to proceed.

Perhaps the best part of this movie is Simon Pegg, mostly known for his silly, comedic roles, is dead serious here as menacing Morgan Warner. The rest of the cast are adequate. The story has a resolution but in total it is just a B movie. Set in NYC much of it was filmed in Alabama.

I am glad we watched it, I would not want a second viewing.

Simon Pegg is stellar as usual, but Lily Collins is terribly miscast. She is too young and juvenile to be believable in this role. She has a meekness in her voice that makes it impossible to believe she is a high-powered DA. Everything else is good, but it's really hard to sink into the story when she is so poorly suited to the role. Her acting skills are fine, she just can't pull this character off. I want to like it, it definitely sucks you in right away and keeps you enthralled, but I'm spending way more time wondering what year of college she is in, rather than believing she is a mother of a 10ish-year-old. Too bad.

"Inheritance" is a direct to video mystery with a mostly unknown cast except for an almost unrecognizable Simon Pegg. 31yo Lily Collins looks much younger, like she's from one of those kids shows on Disney or Nickelodeon. She's really out of place as big city DA "Lauren Monroe", so that's a casting fail, which is a problem since she's the lead. That and other plausibility problems take you out of important moments and make this a so-so storytelling when it could've and should've been worth an 8 or 9 rating. The whole production is analogous to doodoo covered with white icing - it looks good enough to eat but heaven help you if you do! For instance, the whole initial premise that her father barely if at all really briefed her on the terrible responsibility of her inheritance just because someone might be listening in is ludicrous. Fine, you can forgive that one maybe since it launches the story but it's followed by too many subsequent implausibilities you'd have to look past to really enjoy the story itself. It's a shame, because the story concept is decent but poorly executed.

This smacks of a film that started out as something else, got rewritten and recast and ended up as what it is. And what it is is a film so bad, that wastes talented actors with a wafer-thin storyline and a plot that would struggle to fill a 15-minute short film, that I can only conclude everyone involved had bills to pay and thought they might as well make it anyway. It really, absolutely is as bad as the reviewers have said.

However, if you are planning on spending the next 2 hours stubbing your toe over and over again, this is a marginally more pleasant way to spend your time.