Inheritance

In the tragic event of the passing of a loved one, it’s not unusual for them to leave behind private property and belongings to family members. Items such as an heirloom passed down through generations, or a substantial sum of money perhaps. So when Lauren Munroe’s (Lilly Collins; Tolkien) father Archer (Patrick Warburton; Ted, Movie 43) – the patriarch of a wealthy and powerful political family in New York City-  dies, she’s understandably taken aback to discover that, along with a much smaller sum of money than that left to her brother, her dad has entrusted her with a chained man in a secret bunker.

Severely malnourished and visibly dishevelled, this captive claims to be an old friend of Archers named Morgan (Simon Pegg; Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Star Trek Into Darkness). As Lauren digs deeper into the truth with the help of Morgan, painful revelations about her family come to light. But can he be trusted?

Opening with a muddled and hectic montage filled with political rallies, death, courtroom cases and funerals, I was thoroughly confused for the first 10 minutes of Inheritance. Its editing is haphazard and clumsy, jumping in time, location and scenario, making what should be simple character introductions of Lauren, her family and their career paths a convoluted and confounding proceeding. It’s not the only time this perplexing method of editing is employed. About halfway through, another bizarre montage is shoehorned in and feels more like a trailer about the whole picture than a segment recapping or revealing new events.

Chained in an underground bunker at the back of the property and only ever called on to reveal the smallest of plot crumbs for Lauren to investigate further at an achingly sluggish pace, Pegg’s mysterious Morgan is a figuratively toothless Lecter-esque character. To his credit, Pegg himself gives it his all, including committing to a worrying amount of weight loss for the role and a thoroughly unconvincing toupee that’s fooling no one. If there’s any reason at all to watch Inheritance, it’s for Pegg’s impassioned and uncharacteristic performance. Collins is commendable too as the daughter thrown into an unusual situation and the two have combustible chemistry that is never given the chance to really combine.

The mystery at the heart of Inheritance isn’t remotely intriguing and it’s a chore to get to its eventual (and easily solvable) conclusion. It’s frustrating really. There’s plenty of content teased throughout for it to  have been a success. There are threads involving shady bankers, deceptive lawyers and corrupt politicians – three professions with historically juicy fictional tales – and yet, Inheritance still manages to be as thrilling as as dessert recipe.