For a film shot clandestinely on an iPhone, Inheritance is a decent little thriller. It has an intimate rather than epic vibe and will likely find its audience with home or airplane viewing rather than in theaters. Phoebe Dynefor— best known as Duchess Daphne on Bridgerton— carries this gritty globetrotting flick with aplomb, despite a somewhat thin plot and minimalist character development. Dynefor plays Maya, a young woman feeling unmoored after the death of her terminally-ill mother. When her estranged father Sam (Rhys Ifans) suddenly re-enters her life, Maya agrees to join him on a lucrative real-estate venture in Cairo.
It doesn’t take long for Maya to realize that dear old dad was/is a spy. And when he gets kidnapped, it falls to Maya to make her way across Cairo, Delhi, Mumbai, and Seoul to secure the “ransom” and unravel the mystery of her father’s exploits. I won’t reveal what the ransom is, since that would diminish the intensity of the journey for those who choose to embark. Suffice it to say, a lot of nefarious-looking people are searching for her father, and the ransom. And Maya is caught in the middle.
Lucky for Maya, she’s inherited a few of spy-dad’s skills and a healthy distrust of people and their motivations. That will come in handy.
By sheer coincidence, I screened Inheritance just days after a rewatch of the classic romcom Notting Hill (1999) where Ifans stole a few scenes as a scrawny bloke named Spike prancing around in his underwear. So it was hard to get that image out of my head despite Ifans’ very different persona in Inheritance. Alas, I digress.
Inheritance may not be particularly memorable in the long run, but kudos to Director Neil Burger (The Upside, Divergent) for showing content creators that with a bit of experimental flair (and chutzpah), it is possible to make an intriguing feature film with minimal cast and crew. Take that, TikTok and YouTube!
Inheritance runs 101 minutes. In theaters January 24.