Year of Release: 2019
Director: Luc Besson
Starring: Sasha Luss, Luke Evans, Helen Mirren, Cillian Murphy, Lera Abova, Nikita Pavlenko, Anna Krippa, Eric Godon, Andrew Howard,
Genre: Action, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 2
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Synopsis and Review:
Director Luc Besson is back with another action/thriller feature, something he has been producing for the past two decades through his EuropaCorp studio (where he has produced the "Taken" and "Transporter" franchises, to name but a few). "Anna" follows the story of young Russian woman in the 90s, who after losing her parents and an early adulthood filled with bad boyfriends/relationships, is given a chance to get a job as a spy. She's trained and is immediately put through a tough assignment where she is tasked with killing a highly protected target. Following her successful endeavor, she's immediately tasked with more missions which take her to Paris, where modeling is her cover up. As her missions get more dangerous, the more anxious she becomes to break away from that life and go on her own way. However her Russian handlers have other plans, something that comes to a halt, when their American counterparts get involved, and offer Anna a different deal. It's up to her to handle both parts and figure out a way to get out of that deadly world.
It's inevitable that "Anna" draws comparisons with the classic "Nikita", which further cemented Luc Besson's career back in 1990 (and which was remade in the US by John Badham under the title "Point of No Return"). They both have strong female leads, women thrust into positions where they have to make the best of their training, intelligence and whatever else resource they have, in order to escape dicey, and potentially lethal situations. "Anna" unlike "Nikita", feels like a very distant and poor cousin of that film. None of the characters have any depth, nuance or much of a personality, including the always excellent Hellen Mirren, who can't do much with her "handler" character (who looks very much like the Jeanne Moreau/Anne Bancroft characters from "Nikita"/"Point of No Return"). The time jumps and the structure of the film itself is one of the few things that avoids making this endeavor fall into a profound repetitiveness. The film also borrows quite heavily from David Leitch's "Atomic Blonde", including the choreographed fight scenes and the romantic entanglements/attachments of the central character. The film falters on the originality of the script, but even more so on the central casting of Sasha Luss as Anna. She's terribly cast, and is half awake throughout most of the film, has no chemistry with any of the cast members and generally feels like she's completely oblivious to everything taking place (unlike Charlize Theron, who made "Atomic Blonde"'s Lorraine feel like a lethal and tired agent in an deadly/unfriendly locale). The main cast is somewhat lost, with Luke Evans and Cillian Murphy having little to do, but the cinematography from Thierry Arbogast is excellent as always. This is by far a minor effort from an interesting director.
It's inevitable that "Anna" draws comparisons with the classic "Nikita", which further cemented Luc Besson's career back in 1990 (and which was remade in the US by John Badham under the title "Point of No Return"). They both have strong female leads, women thrust into positions where they have to make the best of their training, intelligence and whatever else resource they have, in order to escape dicey, and potentially lethal situations. "Anna" unlike "Nikita", feels like a very distant and poor cousin of that film. None of the characters have any depth, nuance or much of a personality, including the always excellent Hellen Mirren, who can't do much with her "handler" character (who looks very much like the Jeanne Moreau/Anne Bancroft characters from "Nikita"/"Point of No Return"). The time jumps and the structure of the film itself is one of the few things that avoids making this endeavor fall into a profound repetitiveness. The film also borrows quite heavily from David Leitch's "Atomic Blonde", including the choreographed fight scenes and the romantic entanglements/attachments of the central character. The film falters on the originality of the script, but even more so on the central casting of Sasha Luss as Anna. She's terribly cast, and is half awake throughout most of the film, has no chemistry with any of the cast members and generally feels like she's completely oblivious to everything taking place (unlike Charlize Theron, who made "Atomic Blonde"'s Lorraine feel like a lethal and tired agent in an deadly/unfriendly locale). The main cast is somewhat lost, with Luke Evans and Cillian Murphy having little to do, but the cinematography from Thierry Arbogast is excellent as always. This is by far a minor effort from an interesting director.
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