The press notes for the original Belgian comics upon which the big-screen adaptation Largo Winch is based sounds like the stuff of thrilling high pulp: "What if," creator Jean Van Hamme asks, "the son of the richest man in the world had to fend off all manner of kidnappers, murderers, and blackmailers, while also confronting the mysteries of his own concealed childhood?" I'm summarizing here, but that sounds like the recipe for globe-trotting, two-fisted adventures--Batman without the mask avenging the death of his adoptive father from corporate raiders. I've never read the source material, but it seems like my kind of thing.
The flaw of director Jérôme Salle's film adaptation is that it layers on the gloss and applies the new Bond-style aesthetics and attitudes to what is essentially a story of an angry heir punching, kicking, and stabbing his way into his inheritance. Gloss in and of itself isn't a bad thing (see the new Bond movies) but the more grounded in the real world you make your story, the more grounded the actions and the stakes have to be. What we have instead is the titular lead racing against the clock to become the richest man in the world before someone else does, and when you look at it like that, it's kind of drained of all of its excitement.
I should say first and foremost that any flaws with the movie have nothing to do with the cast, led by German-born actor, Tomer Sisley. While he has to contend with a truly dismal shaggy haircut throughout the movie, he somehow overcomes this to be a plausibly dangerous man, executing the aforementioned kicks and stabbings. I wish he were in an action movie that deserved him. Instead, he's trapped in this story where his adoptive father Nerio Winch (Miki Manojlovic) is murdered and at the W Group of which he was the head is under threat by the machinations of a Russian gunrunner turned businessman (Karel Roden--an intriguing character who is sidelined for most of the movie).
Sisley's joined by Kristin Scott Thomas, who proves yet again that when she speaks French, it's one of the modern pleasures of film, and actress Mélanie Thierry whose figure is another one. Both play women with hidden but fairly transparent agendas and I'm sorry to get hung up on the hair thing but Thomas is hidden under an ugly blonde mop while the first time we see Thierry, she's wearing what's obviously a wig. I have no idea why this is the case or why no one noticed that they looked unconvincing.
The mechanics of the plot hang on hidden stock certificates and a lot of characters not really paying attention to the obvious villain. Again, the action scenes are intense and Sisley brings the movie alive when he's onscreen, but when the story lurches through all of the corporate machinations it's simply so dull.
The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch opens in theater and on demand the U.S. on November 18th via Music Box Films.