The Inheritance can best be summed up as a story of loss. Christoffer, our protagonist, gains control of the family business, but ultimately loses control of his life. He manages to save the business by guiding it through a restructuring and a merger but alienates nearly everyone important in his life.
What stood out to me was how much of a negative influence Christoffer’s mother Annelise was. Her line early on in the movie was especially telling: “Your choice to leave the firm 4 years ago was your choice, never ours.” She essentially forced her son into the CEO role, pushed him to fire Ulrik, and blasted Maria for being wrong about having objections to Christoffer taking over the company. Her demanding nature was a major factor in Christoffer’s transformation to a cold and uncaring personality. Given her dictator-like leadership style, it really seems like she was really the one in charge this whole time.
Looking at the business aspects, it’s clear that Christoffer was able to save the business despite his initial objections. He was able to keep the company solvent through the firing of over a hundred employees and the merger with Lyon Steel. However, when looking at it from a family business management perspective, the whole thing was a tremendous failure. It’s not clear if Aksel had any real succession plan in place. While Christoffer thinks that Ulrik was the intended successor, his mother claims otherwise; whether this was the truth or her using the situation to put him in the CEO position is never revealed. In addition, he puts the health of the business over that of the family’s, and fails to seek the counsel of his wife who has to fight for his attention before finally leaving him. There is no attempt at family unity or harmony, best demonstrated by the episode of Ulrik’s firing. Christoffer did not even try to hear Ulrik’s side of the story regarding the rumors going around and just kicked him out while being encouraged to do so by the mother. Failure to communicate. That was really the key problem in the family.
As a side note, I found the cinematography interesting. There is a sense of uneasiness throughout the whole movie, and the director’s choice to shoot it with handheld cameras and their associated unsteadiness echoed this theme. There was little in the way of flashy dramatic effects which made the story all the more powerful. Events simply occurred and we are left to contemplate them.
