For years, franchises like Mission Impossible, Jason Bourne, and James Bond have dominated the espionage genre. These films often have massive budgets and rely on stunts and big action set pieces rather than telling a compelling story. The best of these franchises combine spectacle and story (see 2012’s Skyfall, my favorite example). Given the massive hold they have on Hollywood, there hasn’t been a ton of space for smaller-budget films in the genre. 

Neil Burger’s (Limitless (2011), Divergent (2014)) latest film Inheritance offers up that smaller scale, more intimate take on the spy thriller. The movie stars Phoebe Dynevor (Fair Play (2023), Bridgerton) as Maya, an aimless young woman in New York who has recently lost her mother. After her estranged father (Rhys Ifans) shows up at the funeral, she becomes enraptured in a globe-trotting scheme as she learns he is a spy. 

Dynevor provides a strong performance, notably more hardened and mature than her turn in Fair Play. Her character is tough to figure out from the jump. The first thing we see Maya do is steal a handle of liquor from a corner store and chug the whole thing before heading out to party. This kleptomania persists throughout the film, providing some skepticism as to whether we should be rooting for her. 

No matter the execution of the acting or script, the buzz around this film is going to revolve around the filmmaking techniques. Inheritance was shot on an iPhone, and a lot of the other cinematic choices are affected by this decision. This “guerrilla style” filmmaking makes it look more like a found-footage student film than anything else. (You can read more about the filmmaking style in an interview HERE.) I’m not saying that pejoratively, just using it as a way to describe it. The camera is often handheld and pans back and forth between characters instead of cutting between them during conversations. The lighting is incredibly natural, making it seem like they used no additional lighting throughout the shoot. 

The coolest features of this filmmaking style are the intimate angles and longer takes between cuts. Dynevor and Ifans are forced to command the screen for prolonged stretches, unable to hide behind slick editing. They are mostly up for the task, but Dynevor hasn’t quite developed that level of screen presence thus far.

Ultimately, the creative choices surrounding this film are going to make or break how people feel about it. The script is adequate enough as a work of espionage, but it’s nothing to get too excited about. Inheritance does attempt to tackle some interesting themes around family and the things we are left with from prior generations (shocker, given the title), but these ideas aren’t explored enough to find any payoff. 

The “filmed on an iPhone” gimmick is frankly not that thrilling these days, especially after Steven Soderbergh produced better films this way in Unsane (2018) and High Flying Bird (2019). Burger’s insistence on Inheritance’s production being super low budget and under the radar is incredibly frustrating considering they filmed on location in India and South Korea, among other countries. 

If you’re looking for a solid espionage thriller, Inheritance will probably help fill the void. However, if you want something more, you might want to keep searching. 

Inheritance had its wide theatrical release on January 24, 2025. 

Review Courtesy of Cameron Ritter

Feature Image Credit to IFC Films via Roger Ebert