Since we first
noticed her in ‘Ghost World’ (2001)
and her breakthrough role opposite Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola’s wistful ‘Lost in Translation’ (2003), the lovely and talented Scarlett Johansson has
proven that she’s a rising
starlet to keep an eye on. That
certainly isn’t difficult considering
her classic good looks and a sultry sexiness that many women would kill for, but
beneath the veneer is a skilled actress who can impart any role she plays with
believability, intelligence and heart.
Her
formidable acting skills are
put to the test in French director/producer Luc Besson’s
latest femme fatale sci-fi action thriller
‘Lucy,’ a head-trip of a movie unlike anything we’ve seen in recent memory. In some
ways ‘Lucy’ is as refreshingly different, subversive and revolutionary
as Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner' or the Wachowski Brothers' ‘The Matrix’ were in their time, challenging us to look at the world and our lives through fresh eyes. Yet the movie can also be maddeningly frustrating at times
in its total disregard for
logic and continuity, forcing
us to take great leaps of faith
due to its sheer implausibility. Then again, that's par for the course for Luc Besson.
ScarJo is her usual charming and charismatic self as Lucy
(last name unknown), a young woman who was swept into a web of intrigue beyond her control
in Taiwan after she’s kidnapped
for the purpose of smuggling a smart drug called CPH4 into Europe. The drug accidentally enters her bloodstream and she became not only super smart like
Bradley Cooper in the similarly premised 2011 movie ‘Limitless,’ but also more
powerful and ethereal. If you can accept the movie’s outlandish conceit that when we
achieve the ability to access 100 percent of our brain power, our sentience becomes not only omni-present but also omni-potent without the need of a
corporeal body to contain it as if we're reading some dime store sci-fi novel, you will enjoy ‘Lucy’ for the summer popcorn diversion that it is, even as you grapple
with the inconceivable notion of Ms. Johansson existing without her delectably delicious physical form.
Grade: B+
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