"...Pawn Takes
Queen..."
"Anna" is a
stiletto of a movie – long-legged, elegant and you definitely don’t want to
mess with that girl's pointy ending.
French filmmaker and
Director LUC BESSON has been here before with "Angel-A" (2005) and
"The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blonc-Sec" (2010) – two
cracking little films that bristle with his style, clever story lines and a
flawed but ultimately beautiful and brave female lead (see reviews). Theorists,
plagiarists and in fact anyone with an '...ist' in their bonnet will go on
about yet another Atomic Blonde type movie - leggy girly with guns and lipstick
and bruises and nude scenes (the staple for such films) engages in protracted
battle sequences with dodgy unaccountable State forces and so on to a gore-fest
finale – and deep down I'd concede they probably have a point. There have also
been rumours flying around about on set shenanigans while "Anna" was being
made which has meant it may have slipped through the nets in this horribly woke
world we're presently in.
But I think Besson is
different. I get the impression that he likes women, adores them even. And I'd
say that it makes a genuine difference here. When most of the other films
depicting such characters have the feel of a user, Besson actual likes his
creations and his female leads may start out sappy or even ordinary but they
never end up that way. The actresses are given real meat to work with. They are
always strong, do their own thing on their own terms and men - though they
might like them to be nice or even half-decent and humane on occasion - had
better keep their hearts, underpants and wits about them.
What also makes
"Anna" work and so entertaining is the superb quad of leads: for the
ladies there's the ludicrously beautiful Cillian Murphy and his f-yeah eyes (an
absolute crush for many of my lady friends) playing CIA maverick Lenny Miller -
a suit who is a lot smarter than the by-the-book company man he first appears
to be. On the other side of his morally murky world are the ruthless yet
possibly might–have-a heart duo of Helen Mirren and Luke Evans who recruit the
young street junkie Anna into the Russian Secret Service. Mirren eats this
stuff up – her old, smoke and be-damned Olga is stony faced and precise. Olga
has only survived in this vicious man's world by being equally quick with a
Bowie knife, Bear Trap or a poison ink-nib. Moreover, Olga will not let her
bright new recruit Anna lapse for even a second into mistakes that will get her
killed - whilst at the same time having to appear to tow the line for corrupt
males officials who give her orders to eliminate supposed enemies of the state
and not ask too many questions about the validity of such appraisals.
And then there's the Russian
model Sasha Luss playing the lead role of Anna – the kind of sleek trophy totty
that adorns the arms of drug dealers by swimming pools or Bond villains in
biotechnology labs or the love interest in Kingsmen movies who carry a
machine-gun umbrella in London's Saville Row. Only this time in real life our
Sasha has actually trained in ballet and that elegance of movement shows in
every scene. Sasha Russ is genetically gorgeous for sure - but Besson also
knows that she has to be riveting in the role and at the same time exude a
tremble of fragility and humanity – and Russ achieves all of it. This is an
actress you want to watch. Plus our Sash gets to have fun in and out of
expensive dresses, popping off baddies with silencers, skewering bodyguards in
fancy restaurants with steak knives or a broken dinner plate, fighting Soviet
soldiers in sewers, binning wigs – the usual slow Tuesday stuff for an
International espionage agent.
So, beautiful but drifting Anna
Poliatova realizes she has a chance to escape a world of user boyfriends and
bedsit dime-bag deprivation if she goes with her new handler Alex Tchenkov (a
superb Luke Wilson) and commits to years of espionage training. This will
eventually turn her into a sort of bloodier version of Killing Eve machine
Villanelle – same great outfits but without the jokey psycho streak. On
graduation, promises are made of five years service and Anna soon adopts a
cover in a Parisienne apartment with the gorgeous Lera Abova playing Maude,
Anna's lesbian lover who is in love with Anna but also oblivious to where or
what Anna is as she disappears for days on end for business trips.
But soon Anna begins to
realize that she may have traded one life of servitude to drugs for another
serving the equally treacherous State and that there is always one more job,
one more misery, one more heartless using of her skills that will never end. So
as a child prodigy Chess Player, she begins to plot out minnow-moves that none
of the bigger fish will see coming. Or will they? Is Olga always one step ahead
of her and everybody in fact or is she a Ruskie patriot through and through to
the point where Anna is just collateral damage?
If this all sounds a bit
complicated for a Spy Action Thriller then actually it is. Besson frames his
spiky tale in a series of flashbacks and flash forwards and replays where you
begin to realize and see what is really going on. It's a clever and thrilling
way to keep the story and action moving. The set pieces/fight sequences are
suitably brill and cool and have of course silly body counts that no one seems
to notice as they chow down on their oysters and linguini. Then as Anna begins
to outplay or even break the hearts of her American and Russian men – you're more
and more invested – rooting for her to win...or not...
In March 2020, the BLU RAY is clocking in at about £10 new, but will undoubtedly fall in price as these sort of titles always do, and the picture quality on it is spot-on.
I know many have been
derisory about "Anna" - but damn I enjoyed it a bunch even if it isn't quite "Leon" or "Lucy". Top cast, clever
story, great set pieces and Daddy's smart girl gets to play Chess too.
"Anna" can have my spy bra strap any day of the week...
"Anna" can have my spy bra strap any day of the week...
