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According to the creator Jean Van Hamme, the Largo Winch comics are primed for adaptation, have a gripping premise. What if the son of the wealthiest man in the world was faced with a plethora of kidnappers, assassins, and blackmailers while trying to unravel the dark secrets from his childhood?. The scope of that question is rather large, so to break it down: What did he just summarize? That sounds like the making of a globe-trotting world jumping, two-fisted adventure. I don’t need to name him Batman but this is exactly like a scenario where Bruce Wayne would be trying to get revenge behind the mask. Even though I’ve never really been exposed to the original work, it does seem appealing.
To begin with, the weakness of director Jérôme Salle’s film adaptation is the fact that it adds the gloss, makes everything shiny, and superimposes the Bond-like set designs and attitudes on what is essentially a story about an angry heir who bludgeons, kicks, and stabs his way to his inheritance. Gloss, all by itself, is not a negative term (see the new Bond movies) but the more you delve into the narrative, the focus of its actions, and the stakes of the story, the more you need military grade base realism. Instead, we have the principal character stopping at nothing to make sure he is the wealthiest man in the world prior to anyone else getting this title, and when you think about it in that manner, it’s rather sobering and misses all the excitement it should have.
Now, I must explain first and foremost how every single one of the movie’s shortcomings bears no relations to the cast, one of whom is German Sisley Tomer. Even though he is forced to sport a truly horrendous shaggy hairstyle throughout the movie, somehow he manages to convince me that he is an actual dangerous man able to perform the aforementioned kicks and stabbings. I really wish he had an action movie that actually deserved him. Instead, he is stuck on this one where his adoptive father Nerio Winch (Miki Manojlovic) gets killed and then the W Group which he was in charge of is attacks by a Russian gun runner turned businessman’s (Karel Roden who is an interesting character but is mostly not featured in the movie) schemes.
Joining Sisley is Kristin Scott Thomas, who once again reminds us why the sound of her speaking French is one of the modern day greatest pleasures of cinema, and actress Mélanie Thierry whose figure is another one. Each of the women plays characters who have solidly concealed but rather easy to interpret motives, and I beg your pardon for dwelling on the hair issue, but Thomas is covered by an ugly blonde mop and the first time we meet Thierry, she has on what is clearly a wig. I have no idea why this is or why anyone even seemed to care that they looked so unconvincing.
The narrative structure rests on the finding of secret stock certificates being the single most important thing, and the plethora of characters never focusing on the obvious enemy. Moreover, the action scene is next to none. The same applies to Sisley who makes the film quite engaging while he is onscreen. However, when the plot progresses through the numerous tedious corporate process,s it is simply so dull.
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