Lucy

Luc Besson’s best movie in almost 10 years, Lucy follows Scarlett Johansson’s title character, a young American visiting Taiwan, as she’s forced to smuggle a very dangerous drug out of the country by a group of nefarious criminals (led by Min-sik Choi’s Mr. Jang) – with the plot kicking into gear after said drug, which has been secreted into Lucy’s intestine, leaks and imbues Lucy with extraordinary mind powers. Filmmaker Besson does a superb job of immediately capturing the viewer’s interest and attention, as the movie opens with an impressively tense stretch detailing Lucy’s initial, very reluctant encounter with the aforementioned criminals – with the film, past that point, morphing into a relentless actioner that’s been suffused with memorable and thoroughly engrossing set pieces. Besson’s periodic reliance on avant-garde visuals – ie he’ll cut to seemingly random nature footage during a high-octane sequence – go a long way towards heightening Lucy‘s appealingly off-kilter vibe, although it’s clear that it’s the director’s superb handling of the various action beats that ultimately sets the film apart from virtually all of its contemporary genre brethren (ie there is, refreshingly, absolutely no shaky-cam here). Johansson’s compelling performance plays a key role in confirming the movie’s success, certainly, as the actress steps into the shoes of her increasingly emotionless character to a degree that’s nothing short of mesmerizing. By the time the almost insanely unpredictable third act rolls around, Lucy has established itself as an art-house thriller disguised as a mainstream summer blockbuster – which is, to put it mildly, no small feat in this comic-book, superhero-suffused landscape.

***1/2 out of ****