Inheritance

Inheritance is the new thriller by the talented Mr. Burger with an international setting which was shot with an iPhone.

The film was fun in parts, with an interesting premise and a tense chasing scene being the highlights.

Unfortunately i found the writing lazy with stereotypical characters, predictable twists and a "gotcha" finale that you can see coming from miles away.

What i didn't "get" also was the "shot with an iPhone" choice. It didn't add anything new in the handheld camera style cinematography. On the contrary, the image quality on the big screen, especially during the dark scenes and scenes with high contrast was problematic and distracting, looking cheap instead of realistic.

I would recommend this film, if you don't have anything more interesting to see.

Using only iPhones for filming definitely gives this project a unique flavour, a distinctive identity, especially from a filmmaking perspective.

All the events come across as raw, the moments feel unfiltered, making scenes resemble more of a vlog you would find on someone's YouTube channel rather than a traditional movie meant for theaters and home entertainment.

However, it falls short in all other facets.

There's lack of real tension, screenplay is pretty bland, and it misses that sense of stakes and intensity. Plus, I just didn't feel invested in the characters or the journeys they had to take.

After her mother's funeral. Maya (Phoebe Dynevor) gets a chance to connect with her estranged father Sam (Rhys Ifans.)

He offers to take her to Egypt where he claims to work in real estate. Even asking Maya to get a job to entice people to launder money in property.

However Sam disappears and is later contacted by people who claim to have abducted him.

They want Maya to retrieve a hard disk from a safe deposit box in India.

It leads her to question just who her father is. He had a false passport, previously worked in espionage and Interpol are also after him.

Directed by Neil Burger on an Iphone. This is a guerilla thriller shot in Egypt, India and South Korea without permits. Some task in India as the cops like to have their backhanders even if you have all the proper paperwork.

Once the post production grading is done, the film looks quite good. Although it could be better lit.

The story is hackneyed. You sense Maya is being used by her father. The international locales add to the movie.

I enjoyed how the camera was weld for this film. Other reviewers I've read seem displeased by the "held camcorder" style, however I found this attempt to be a different and fresh way to use it. For instance, the shots of how pedestrians looked at the main character as she's walking through the streets. It focused on how others perceive her rather than how she perceived her surroundings. Which for the India sequences was true to form. The men are known to gawk at American women and cat call them profusely. Also, never have I felt like an actual tourist to to the many different countries visited in the movie. The tone, pace, shots, extras, and all together vibe made me feel as if I was actually visiting the pyramids in Egypt, travels a train through India, and walked the streets of South Korea. I watch a lot of film and never have felt what it must be like to be a tourist in the locations the movie was at.

Inheritance feels like it was made on a modest budget, but that actually works in its favor. The handheld, action-cam style gives it a gritty, immersive feel without being distracting. The story is fine; nothing groundbreaking, but it holds your attention, and the ending ties it all together nicely. The cast delivers solid performances, and the locations are visually interesting. But the real standout is the soundtrack. Seriously impressive work by Paul Leonard-Morgan. It's layered, tense, and adds so much atmosphere. Overall, it's a decent watch with just enough mood and momentum to make it worthwhile.