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Very Disappointing Inheritance

Sometimes films make me smile. Sometimes they make me edgy with suspense. Sometimes they bore me. Sometimes they make me angry, especially documentaries that reveal horrible situations. "Inheritance" is Vaughn Stein's second turn at directing a feature. I didn't see the first one and based on his latest, I won't be going back to check it out. Maybe it's not his fault. Maybe it's just bad writing.

Anyway, "Inheritance" made me very angry for all the wrong reasons. There is no logic to it. All of the characters are caricatures, except for perhaps Simon Pegg as Morgan Warner. His scenes are somewhat interesting. So many scenes just feel phony. I'm not going to go into the details, but if you see it, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Lauren Monroe (Lily Collins) is the New York County District Attorney. Someone of her age could never have that position. She is the daughter of the very wealthy Archer Monroe (Patrick Warburton). During her press conference, she learns that her father has died from an unexpected heart attack.

At the reading of his will, we learn that Lauren's brother, a politician, has been left 50 million. Lauren gets only 1 million.  After the reading of the will, Lauren learns that her father has also left her an envelope. The envelope contains a thumb drive that has a video of Archer explaining what else she has inherited. It's a key that opens a door on the floor in the dirt on the property of the estate.

After opening the door, she walks down the stairs that leads to a long hallway. At the end of the hallway is a door. When she opens it, she sees a haggard old man shackled to the ceiling. The rest of the story is unraveling why he is there. After seeing the film, I'm still not sure why he was there. I know the reason given, but it makes no sense to me. After that nothing else makes much sense, either.

The only conclusions I can draw from "Inheritance" is that every single character is someone you're better off never meeting. Everyone is a dirtbag. Even worse, they behave in ways that either make no sense or that demonstrate how stupid they are. Yet, we're supposed to believe that they're all brilliant and successful. If you ever attend a reading of a will, pray that you don't inherit a copy of this film.