Review of Anna (2013) by Mel S — 14 Mar 2015

The concept is good-- an interesting idea merges with the spectacular vision of a director I hope to see more of. 'Anna' has several things going for it, such as a good cast that occasionally fails to nail down their characters but mostly delivers a compelling performance; a new and fascinating addition to normal detective work in the form of the Mindscape agency; fantastic translation to the screen through perfectly executed cuts and jumps that mostly feel like a very natural flow without being too grand and pretentious.

Anyone expecting a thriller will be disappointed, but 'Anna' does well as a mystery. The unforgivable sins this movie commits and in the end force it into predictable failure are flat characters and bad pacing. What kills all effort in the end is 'Anna's incapability of deciding whether it wants to be a thriller/mystery or a drama. It starts off as one and ends being neither-- making the characters unlikeable and unrelatable because the actors struggle with the conflicting material they're given. Mark Strong and Taissa Farmiga do their best, but in the end it isn't good enough (Strong in particular makes every effort to add an emotional factor to his character and the movie and mostly succeeds, but one man alone can't carry a crumbling framework. Farmiga is an emerging talent who fell victim to a flat character that gives the illusion of depth and would have done much better if the writing had been more consistent and decided on a direction to take for her).

Wasted potential aside, it's worth a watch, but keep your expectations in check. Recommended for people who are interested in the concept of thrillers but don't quite have the stomach for the real deal... and Mark Strong fans.