Tuesday 6 September 2016

REVIEW - MORGAN (LUKE SCOTT)


A good question doesn't always need an answer. It can provoke, stimulate, satisfy the mind without resolution, an itch whose pleasure resides not in being scratched, but in itching in the first place. Morgan asks such questions, and predictably finds few answers, if any; alas, eventual developments expose the shallow simplicity that lies behind its intentions. Those questions are sustenance enough to make this insidiously intriguing thriller worth a watch, though you may have to actively seek that satisfaction - Morgan answers just about everything that you wish it had left well alone, satisfying only the transitory lust for cathartic thrills. This is what inevitably occurs when empty-headed business people dabble in intellectual and artistic spheres, only acknowledging the integrity of the tools with which they play, never applying them to appropriate ends. At Morgan's core is a silly, generic proposition, yet the essence of those intellectual and artistic spheres in which it is indubitably located remains, and unavoidably influences the product of that proposition. You actually can be provoked, stimulated, to an extent satisfied by the things this film intermittently has to say, or the things it does. To a certain point, and certain you shall be of its impending arrival, this is a smart and mysterious film, made stronger still by excellent acting. Due credit to a most underappreciated casting director, Carmen Cuba, but also to a capable cast including Kate Mara at her best, Boyd Holbrook (consistently better than anyone expects him to be), Paul Giamatti and the ever-welcome Michelle Yeoh. By the film's insipid, predictable end, you probably couldn't care less, but there's a lot to love about Morgan. You just have to ask the right questions to get the right answers.

No comments:

Post a Comment