Skip to footer

'Lucy': Even the supersmart protagonist probably couldn't explain this movie

( R ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Lucy' stars Scarlett Johansson as an American expat in Taiwan whose brain power is increased.

|
Jessica Forde/Universal Pictures/AP
'Lucy' stars Scarlett Johansson (r.) and Morgan Freeman (l.).
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

Luc Besson makes nonsensical movies and so, of course, he was the perfect writer-director for “Lucy,” a Scarlett Johansson headliner about an American expat in Taiwan who runs afoul of the local mob and ends up accidentally ingesting a blue crystal drug – don’t ask – and becoming supersmart. 

We’re not talking the usual 10% brainpower smart here. As the action ramps up, the screen flashes her ascending cerebral wattage: first 20% (putting her on a par with dolphins, apparently) and then moving on up the scale to 100%, at which point she can do just about anything – except, I would wager, make sense of this movie. 

I know we’re supposed to think that Besson’s daffy cinematic calisthenics are entertaining because at least they are not boring. But I was bored. It didn’t help that Morgan Freeman shows up as a brainy scientist explaining everything to us in his deepest intonations. When was the last time Freeman, a great actor, really acted? 

And what’s up with Johansson’s casting choices lately? She was terrific in “Her” as a disembodied computer program and eerie as an alien in “Under the Skin.” Now this. I guess for her the abnormal is the new normal. Grade: C (Rated R for strong violence, disturbing images, and sexuality.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Lucy': Even the supersmart protagonist probably couldn't explain this movie
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2014/0725/Lucy-Even-the-supersmart-protagonist-probably-couldn-t-explain-this-movie
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe