Kristin Scott Thomas’ string of French movies continues with the corporate thriller “The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch,” directed by Jerome Salle. Thomas plays an icy executive at a multinational corporation based in Hong Kong. When the company’s billionaire owner, possessor of the world’s fifth-largest fortune, is murdered, his sole heir is discovered to be his adopted son, Largo Winch, whose existence until then has been a secret.
Winch (hunky Tomer Sisley) is tracked to a prison in Brazil, where he’s doing time on a drug charge, and is dragged to Hong Kong to take charge before his father’s enemies can stage a hostile takeover. Along the way, Winch fights off any number of bad guys, including a helicopter-borne sniper.
The generic plot is redeemed by exciting action sequences, good-looking location photography and a hot sex scene involving a femme fatale named Lea (pixie-haired Melanie Thierry). Now we await the sequel, which has already been released in Europe, featuring Sisley and Sharon Stone.