OK, so now what does Luc Besson do for an encore?

Rating: Null/10 (31 July 2014)

From "La Femme Nikita" onwards I've been a big fan of his, in fact he's the only foreign director I can think of whose name alone would pull me into a movie theater. I've been trying to put my finger on just what it is that makes his stuff so capital-W watchable; maybe it's his ability to combine an innately playful (even zany) quality with gut-wrenchingly brutal violence and cruelty into a seamless whole; add to that an aura of inevitability that maybe one just has to be European to be able to render, the moments of joy in the face of impending doom. Being French in particular, he can't help but ponder deep philosophical issues amidst the gun battles and car chases, and with Lucy he's decided to "shoot the moon," try to capture the entire essence of human nature and potential. As they supposedly like to say in New Orleans, "Let the good times roll...." Your reaction to this movie will depend entirely on how well you think Scarlett Johansson carries off the title role. I have to 'fess up that before this I of course had heard of her but had never actually seen her in something. As per the late Siskel and Ebert, thumbs up for me. She plays the significant other of a shady sort called Richard (who wears a straw cowboy hat for no clear reason) who lives in Taiwan and works for a mysterious kingpin called Mr. Jang. He insists she carry a briefcase into a hotel lobby for him but won't tell her what's in it, and when she shrewdly resists, he literally handcuffs her to it. Her latent terror combined with desperate hope that all will turn out well is exquisitely manifested by Ms Johansson. It turns out that she and a few hapless others have been designated by Mr. Jang to be human mules for some super-synthetic drug which she accidentally ingests into her system. This gives her a "brain boost" (to borrow a term from "Forbidden Planet") resulting in steadily increasing superhuman abilities. Much wackiness ensues as the action shifts to France involving gangsters and cops and also the apparently immortal Morgan Freeman as a professor whose function is to render arcane scientific concepts digestible for most of us movie viewers. There's a lot here that can fairly be described as derivative; one nay saying critic referred to half a dozen titles he saw as influences for "Lucy" (I'm surprised he missed "2001: A Space Odyssey"). Certain plot holes can seem like black holes, such as the sequence where she seems to be disintegrating inside an airplane restroom---which by the way must be one of the most gorgeously ominous things I've seen on screen---next thing we know, she's bodily intact again. But these quibbles, while valid, seem to be missing the point, which is to let oneself get swept along for this ultra-Bessonian ride with Ms Johansson the ever calmer rock upon which we can position ourselves. This may sound corny, but by the time Lucy finally surpasses the need for corporeality but informs us via someone's cell phone that she is "everywhere," I personally found that reassuring. Kudos also to the other actors, in particular Min-sik Choi as Mr. Jang; he is quite possibly the best actor on the planet---okay, a bold statement, but catch him in "Oldboy" and his other Korean flicks--in fact, "Oldboy" alone should do it for you. (I didn't even dream of contaminating my memory of "Oldboy" by watching the American remake.) Also very nice use by Besson of various pieces of stock footage, it all fits right in. Great evocative music too, I may even buy the soundtrack CD. So bottom line, don't worry if this movie is "cool" or not (seems to be doing okay at the box office). It'll be dark in the theater, no one has to see you enjoying yourself....