Maybe you saw The Witch and wondered what else its young star, Anya Taylor-Joy, might be capable of. Morgan represents your first chance to see, and this science-fiction thriller confirms the remarkable talent of this 20-year-old. Whether it’s her wide-set eyes, her cutting intelligence, or her unplaceable English-Argentinian-Spanish-American accent that inspires filmmakers to cast her as girls who aren’t quite of this world, she’s appropriately uncanny in these roles. Here she’s cast as a laboratory subject with gray skin, gray hair, and a gray hoodie, and she’s the source of the film’s unnerving power.
The movie begins with corporate risk assessment officer Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) being sent to a lab in the countryside to check on the progress of a team of scientists that has been sequestered for years working on a single secret project. That project is Morgan (Taylor-Joy), a 5-year-old artificially created humanoid who has never been outside the grounds of the lab and whose tweaked genetics have given her accelerated growth, psychic powers, and the ability to snap a fully grown deer’s neck with her bare hands. Despite Morgan’s awkward, politely soft-spoken demeanor, she or it — the scientists disagree over which pronoun to use — has trouble with emotional control. Already one of Morgan’s handlers (Jennifer Jason Leigh) has had her eye put out by what she calls a “tantrum.” Morgan calls it an “error.”
This is an impressive first effort by Luke Scott, the son of Ridley Scott and the second of his father’s children to become a director. (Luke’s sister Jordan Scott directed the underappreciated Cracks.) This film plays much like his dad’s Alien, with a tightly knit crew in an enclosed space dealing with a threat in their midst that they only partially understand, especially during the conclusion when Morgan slips restraints and starts killing people in the halls one by one. There’s a touch of Ex Machina here, too, the sterile indoor lab environment contrasted with the wild natural setting outside — the movie was filmed in Northern Ireland. As you might expect from a famous filmmaker’s son, Luke Scott directs with great assurance, and while his management of two extended fight sequences between Morgan and Lee isn’t the smoothest, it’s lucid and legible. (It helps that his two actresses were clearly paying attention when they took their stage combat classes.)
His crew gives him good help, especially costume designer Stefano de Nardis, excelling in the sort of movie where you might not pay attention to costumes. Besides Morgan’s gray outfit (a nicely creepy touch), he also gives Lee a severe hairstyle and a crisp business suit that helps make the tiny Mara convincing as a woman who’d decapitate anybody inconvenient to her.
Of course, this counts for little without the performances, and Mara projects a badassery that I’ve never seen from her on film. (Of course, I haven’t seen any of the TV shows she’s been on, so I may well have missed something.) Taylor-Joy does the heavier emotional lifting, though, and she is excellent as Morgan struggles to process new and uncomfortable feelings, whether it’s wonder at the natural world outside the lab or fear when being strapped down for a lethal injection or murderous rage when an arrogant psychiatrist (Paul Giamatti) stupidly turns provocative during a session with Morgan. The actress’ mental acuity makes it plausible that Morgan knows how to drive a car, fire a gun, and speak Chinese without having been taught any of these things. During a climactic epiphany by a lakeside, Taylor-Joy manages to find a core of radiant humanity inside this person who was made for murder.
The movie then throws this moment away, which nicely illustrates its limitations. Seth Owen’s script raises the obvious questions of what makes a human being but doesn’t bother to follow them through, and the romantic entanglements among the scientists are brought up only to be tossed carelessly aside. The supporting characters are fleshed out in some detail, but their actions wind up making little difference to the story, which is a waste of an enviable supporting cast (Michelle Yeoh, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook). The final revelation isn’t quite as mind-blowing as the filmmakers think, either. Vincenzo Natali’s 2010 film Splice tied similar elements together for greater tragic power. Instead of the science-fiction masterpiece it could have been, Morgan ends up only as a genre piece. It’s a very good one, though. Its young talent bears watching.[box_info]
Morgan
Starring Kate Mara and Anya Taylor-Joy. Directed by Luke Scott. Written by Seth Owen. Rated R.
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