Lucy
The woman who became a brain
Although I had watched several films directed by Luc Besson, I had never paid greater attention to the director’s name until I saw “Léon” (FRA/USA, 1994), where the French-Moroccan Jean Reno lives a hit man. I became a fan of Besson, who gave us titles such as “The Big Blue” (“Le Grand Bleu”, FRA, 1988), “Nikita” (FRA, 1990), “The Fifth Element” (FRA/UK, 1997), and the surprising “Lucy” (FRA/USA, 2014), starring Scarlett Johansson, that viewers will love or hate.
Interestingly, most fellow film critics liked “Lucy”, but complained about the director’s wrongdoing, because they consider Besson an expert in action movies. Well, not only are his films filled with scenes of gunfire, explosions, fights and chases, but he has scripted some of the genre’s greatest hits, such as the French series “Taxi”, “The Kiss of the Dragon” (FRA/USA, 2001), “Unleashed Dog” (UK/USA, 2005), “The Transporter” (FRA/USA, 2002), “Taken” (FRA/USA, 2008), “District B13″ (“Banlieue 13”, FRA, 2004) and several others.
But the surprising director also gave us the delightful comedy “The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec” (“Les aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec”, FRA, 2010) and the series “Arthur and the Invisibles” (“Arthur et les Minimoys”, FRA, 2006-2017), where he incursions into the children’s universe. This ease with which he permeates the various genres also allowed him to direct both the epic “The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc” (“Joan of Arc”, FRA/USA, 1999) and the eastern drama “The Lady” (FRA/UK, 2011).
“Lucy” revolves around the title character, Lucy (Scarlett Johansson), who will – literally – turn the world inside out. Those who read the synopsis can be led to imagine that there is a repetition of the character Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) from “The Fifth Element”.
But that comparison is a long way off. While Leeloo was born special – after all, she was the Fifth Element of the title itself – Lucy was a simple American student in China, more interested in the sprees and nightclubs than in the books.
Convinced by a spree colleague to hand over a briefcase for a mysterious Korean, Mr Jang (Min-sik Choi), Lucy is imprisoned, doped, and when she wakes up, she discovers that she had her abdomen open, and something is hidden there. She and three other Westerners are expected to return to their home countries, where they will have the drug extracted and receive a reward. If they revealed the truth to anyone, all their relatives would be killed.
But while still in prison, Lucy is assaulted and the drug casing breaks, spreading it into her body. The drug is a strong brain stimulant, and Lucy has her brain capacity progressively increased.
If this new ability allows her to escape from prison and understand what is happening to her body, she also discovers that she does not have much time left to live. Thus, she decides to find the rest of the drug in the other carriers, and reach with the biggest specialist in the field, Professor Norman (Morgan Freeman), who is in Paris. All this in less than 24 hours.
The rest of the film shows Lucy’s clash with Jang’s gang, who will use every possible weapon against the girl, who has the support only of the astonished French police officer Pierre Del Rio (Amr Waked), and her now immense brain capacity.
Although there is no lack of gunfire, explosions and unbridled chases through the streets of Paris – after all, the film is a thoroughbred Besson. The building of the movie is very interesting by merging Lucy’s story with fragments of Professor Norman’s academic explanations. Even more surprising is the “journey” the girl makes when she reaches the apex of her brain capacity – a stage that practically leads her to divinity.
There is no shortage, moreover, some indications of this stage, such as the interesting moment when Lucy of the present meets her prehistoric namesake, which very much resembles the divine touch portrayed in the Sistine Chapel.
The film works upon the well-known, however, controversial concept that humans use only ten percent of their brain capacity. Considering what we see int the world in recent years I doubt if a lot of people do not use even a fraction of that…
“Lucy” is all Scarlett Johansson. The girl proves that, besides being beautiful and sexy, she is an excellent actress, able to face the most diverse roles with the same professionalism. Morgan Freeman is not much required, but it is always an interesting counterpoint when his sympathetic image appears on the screen.
Obviously, this is a movie to watch with an open mind, without clinging to scientific foundations or religious principles. More than releasing some scientific proposition, the film is a great joke about a reluctant heroine without much ethical concern, at least not on a plane inferior to that of the Universe itself.
“Lucy” can be watched on the Netflix streaming service.