The opening shots of director Thomas Ikimi's "Legacy" confront us with a terrific jolt, introducing its band of corrupted heroes through suspicion, disease, and finally gunplay in a setup for an action thriller with bold and fearless, if not misguided undertaking. This is a film that feels free to pace itself, to take its time and allow its story to unfold with a sense of purpose. It's a truly savory sequence with a design that dares to be great, assaulting viewers with a roughness that strokes the sensory receptors. The yarn of that breakdown of psychosis is unraveled by none other than The Wire's own Idris Elba. These shots brim with intensity, summoning a brooding atmosphere of doomy grit and realism. When it seeks to over-extend its reach to the dark sweep of a noir-ish blend of an everyman's version of a Frank Miller graphic novel, though, it's the same tacked on, self-serious tendencies of the better half part of this film's intriguing but messy stretch that does it in.
When it worked as taut character study, I found myself appreciating the depths the film choose to navigate, and Elba, as the weathered alcoholic black ops soldier Malcolm Gray, hits all the right notes. "Legacy" would not be my first screening of a true "actors' showcase" of sorts at Tribeca (later a still flawed, though more gripping piece like "The Killer Inside Me" would put forth an exercise on behalf of Casey Affleck in a similar vein).
One facet of Gray's jigsawed mind, the real (or imagined) relationship between he and his former girlfriend (Monique Gabriela Curnen) was fascinating. It's a glimpse into the window of ramifications and aftermath of a man who's chosen a violent and treacherous path, and the even more discomforting reality that he must choose to accept. This woman simply couldn't bear to function as an emotionally rigid, loyal companion, and turned in her darker times for someone to care for her. It's a reality that might just break the otherwise rock-hard, unflinching Malcolm. "Legacy" was intriguing in its portrait of masculinity and in demonstrating the grisly, haunting toll that murder, even when it comes with a profession or "mission" is still in nothing less than cold, cold blood. Through it all, Gray's fellow soldier and mentor, Ola Adenuga (Clarke Peters) tells him one thing: "Keep your head up".
Mr. Ikimi's fine and intelligently presented points begin to sag throughout too much of the film's middle stretch. Malcolm's fretting deconstruction hits an especially flat-lining low with its excessive and exhausting use of the "self-videotaping" technique that seems to be becoming somewhat of a go-to gimmick in movies, inserted whenever directors wish to show any characters in the midst of lonesome self-examination and scrutiny. The heavy portent that underlies here can't help but feel contrived. In this stretch "Legacy" is a kitschy mess that seeks to blend influences: part "Taxi Driver", part "Rear Window", part "Memento", and sadly, all boredom. At one point a man sitting to my right laughed involuntarily as Malcolm sat in front of his tripod nested camera, groaning "Today's a bad day". Does he know any other? Apparently these dark, sullen times and the demons we inhibit can only be coped with - not overcome - by a bottle of vodka and an utter contempt for life, though I guess I'd be insensitive if I suggested that Malcolm Gray cheer up and go for a run in the park.
Insofar as this heavy laden, down-trodden swamp of inner turmoil, Ikimi's ambitions seem to reach severely further than "Legacy"'s thrill-noir capabilities in a way that feels rushed; there's never any room for these ideas to breathe. The sweeping implications of Gray's politician brother's (Eamonn Walker) involvement beg us to follow through imagery and television broadcasts revisited obsessively throughout, though they never quite send home the suggestions of that legacy the title would entail. Any deeper meaning of the film's title gets lost in a plot that grows more convoluted with each of Malcolm's swigs of alcohol, and for a film titled "Legacy", the loss of that meaning proves to be a hefty compromise.
A Q & A with Ikimi followed the film's end credits, and in response to several questions he reflected on one review, to which he recalled, "Basically the reviewer said the only reason to go see the movie was Idris [Elba]'s performance". "The only people I will continue to make films for is my audience", he added. "You are what matters". Where that such critic spoke truths in his respect and his own right, maybe I wrung a bunch more out of the confusion of Ikimi's work. It wanders, but there is a head on the young director's shoulders. I hope he keeps right on making movies for his audience, and I look forward to his next.
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5)
Cast & Credits
Malcolm Gray: Idris Elba
Darnell Gray, Jr.: Eamonn Walker
Diane Shaw: Lara Pulver
Valentina Gray: Monique Gabriela Curnen
Ola Adenuga: Clarke Peters
Scott O'Keefe: Richard Brake
Black Camel Films presents a film written and directed by Thomas Ikimi. Produced by Thomas Ikimi, Arabella Page Croft, Kieran Parker. Running time: 92 Minutes. No MPAA rating.
You can find this review, its supplemental materials, as well as other extensive film coverage at EInsiders.com.
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