Bond-dessiné

The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch is the first installment of a hip French take on the James Bond archetype, unapologetically commercial and satisfying entertainment that comes by way of comic books from old legends.

Tomer Sisley as Largo Winch.

Largo Winch (Tomer Sisley), a foundling, is a Euro hipster hero raised secretly by devoted lifelong helpers in Croatia with a brother foundling. He must deal with a powerful adoptive father surrounded by corporate schemers, an English dominatrix, beefy bad guys and exotic women. He handles these in various combinations and with scarcely a moment’s rest as he jets to picturesque locations around the world from one jump-cut action scene to the next.

Miki Manojlovic and Tomer Sisley as Nerio and Largo Winch

Largo’s father Nerio Winch (Miki Manojlovic) is a billionaire financier, himself from sketchy beginnings in Croatia, whose global empire is headquartered in a Hong Kong skyscraper and who lives on a yacht. Ann Ferguson (Kristin Scott Thomas) is Nerio’s corporate tiger mom; Freddy (Gilbert Melki), a ringer for a young Christopher Lee, is his faithful Croatian retainer.

Kristin Scott Thomas as Ann Ferguson in The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch

The film is in French, Croatian, Portuguese and, except for Scott Thomas (who also speaks French), everyone speaks (or is dubbed in) English with a spaghetti-western accent. The acting, such as it is, has to do more with looking the right part than speaking lines. Alexandre Desplat’s original score is Bondian, and Nerio’s butler Gauthier (Nicolas Vaude) easily could have been cribbed from Bond’s fussy MI6 quartermaster on order of Bernard Lee or, more recently, Ben Whishaw; Nerio’s Miss Pennywinkle (Elizabeth Bennett) nods to Bond’s Miss Moneypenny. The Winch International board of directors resembles a multinational Spectre roundtable.

Tomer Sisley and Mélanie Thierry survive a plot turn in Largo Winch

Young Largo disdains his father’s wealth and power, wandering the earth seeking adventures like Kane in the television show Kung Fu. The action finds him in a backwater in Brazil’s Mato Grosso State getting an ‘invincibility tattoo’ from an illustrated Asian man. The outside world crashes in on Largo grace à Léa (Mélanie Thierry), a latter day Pussy Galore. Nerio is dead and Largo, groomed to succeed him but hitherto kept secret, is identified as his heir by Scott Thomas’s Ferguson. She takes charge of the Winch board and spearheads the search for the prodigal Largo.

Sean Connery's Bond and Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore

Mélanie Thierry and Tomer Sisley in Largo Winch

The stakes are upped when sketchy Georgian oligarch Mikhail Korsky (Karel Roden) appears to be engineering a hostile takeover bid for Winch International. But a larger scheme may be afoot.

We know that Largo’s invincibility tattoo was not completed. However, even a highly trained adept with full invincibility intact would be ecstatic to survive the tests and plot twists that Largo undergoes—and that keep viewers on the edge of their chairs throughout.

The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch 2008 France (108 minutes) Pan-Européene. Directed by Jérôme Salle; screenplay, adaptation and dialogue by Salle and Julien Rappeneau from the graphic novel series ‘Largo Winch’ by Van Hamme and Franq; cinematography by Denis Rouden; editing by Richard Marizy; original music by Alexandre Desplat; production design by Michel Barthélémy.