"Lucky" Review: Anya Taylor-Joy's Getaway Is a Crime Thriller That's Both Fast-Paced and Thoughtful

While writing her 2021 novel 'Lucky,' Marissa Stapley says she learned how con artists operate by watching heist films, reading books on the subject, and studying YouTube videos about separating gullible victims from their money. But she writes that she only remembered her true inspiration much later: at age ten, watching her mother lose her entire savings to a scammer. "I wonder," Stapley says, "given how brutal the reality of being conned actually is, why it's nearly impossible not to root for a skilled fictional con artist."

That apparent contradiction sits right at the heart of the novel's adaptation. The show lets the audience admire its heroine's skill while never losing sight of the human cost of exploiting other people's greed and good faith — both for the victims and for the con artists themselves. Created by Jonathan Tropper ('Warrior,' 'Your Friends & Neighbors') alongside co-showrunner Cassie Pappas ('Silo'), 'Lucky' opens in a furious rush and never really slows down across its seven episodes. But like a con artist playing the long game, the show's second half reveals that it's not just its heroine's life at stake, but her soul.

Anya Taylor-Joy's Lucky starts the series on the run and doesn't stop running until the final episode. As the flashbacks reveal, that wasn't part of her carefully laid plan: after cashing in millions of dollars and celebrating with her husband Cary (Drew Starkey) at Caesar's Palace, she was supposed to leave the country. But after oversleeping and waking up with a splitting headache, she finds Cary has vanished along with the money. Worse, the police have sealed off the casino's exit, and as she tries to make her way back to her room, Lucky spots FBI agent Billie Rand (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), a figure from her complicated past.

In fact, Lucky has a complicated history with nearly everyone in her life. She was set up for this fortune by the very con her father, John (Timothy Olyphant), built while raising her alone and teaching her the craft of deception; John is in prison but sees it as a temporary setback. Other interested parties include the cool-headed gangster Priscilla (Annette Bening — also Lucky's mother-in-law), who appears to lead a respectable life on a Malibu horse ranch, and mob boss Whittaker (William Fichtner), who unnerves even Priscilla.

The show establishes early on that its heroine is driven above all by survival instinct. She doesn't want the people around her to get hurt, and she doesn't enjoy lying to exploit people's goodwill; but to escape those chasing her, she sees both as unavoidable. Gripping action sequences and an unrelenting sense of unease back up that perspective. Still, as the season progresses, an undercurrent grows louder: Lucky starts to reckon with the cost of living the only life she's ever known — the loneliness that comes with the regret gnawing at her even when the plans work.

The strength of Taylor-Joy's performance shows in this: you forget how hard it should be for someone with such a striking face to move around unnoticed. The cast around her is just as strong. Behind her owlish glasses, Bening rarely plays a character this icy (and chilling) in her career. Though Olyphant appears sparingly in the early episodes, once he's fully onscreen he proves worth the wait, uncovering the dark side of his usual effortless charm. Ellis-Taylor is excellent as a character on the other side of the law whose emotions sometimes mirror Lucky's own; Clifton Collins Jr. also grabs some nice moments as Priscilla's loyal enforcer.

Combined with Tropper and Pappas's carefully placed breathing room between waves of action and tension, a beating heart emerges beneath what could have been pulpy plotting. Watching Lucky's dark magic is exhilarating; but the show, like its heroine, knows the emptiness that settles in once the thrill fades.

The first two episodes premiered on Apple TV on Wednesday, July 15; subsequent episodes air weekly.

Source: TVGuide