Anna (2019)

“Beneath Anna's striking beauty lies a secret that will unleash her indelible strength and skill to become one of the world's most feared government assassins.”

This short intro caught my attention and convinced me to watch Anna, directed by Luc Besson. However, as I write this review, I’m still trying to figure out what secret helped unleash Anna's strength. Maybe I’m not quick-witted enough to catch it, or maybe the movie fails to deliver the details necessary for the audience to understand what’s going on.

Anna is described as a 2019 thriller film, but there was nothing particularly thrilling about it. The sequence of actions bored me, especially due to the film's overuse of unnecessary flashbacks.

The film begins with an agent from a modeling agency searching for young, attractive females for fashion modeling. He stumbles upon Anna and is immediately smitten by her beauty and physique, leading him to recruit her for his agency.

Through a flashback, we learn that Anna was deliberately planted at the spot where the modeling agent found her by Olga, a ruthless senior KGB handler, to assassinate several of the fashion agents while posing as a model. Before this, Anna had agreed to work with Olga for five years after undergoing a year of training. She made this deal because she needed to escape the abusive relationship she was trapped in.

The film revolves around Anna, who carries out assassinations for reasons known only to the KGB and the film's producer. Despite her missions, all Anna truly seeks is freedom. But to gain her freedom from the KGB, she must work smart.

My Review and Rating

The eponymous character, Anna, indeed has striking beauty, but her fighting skills are sub-par. I wasn’t impressed at all. There’s nothing particularly special about her, and she doesn’t convincingly fit the character she’s supposed to portray.

I also dislike that I was left to do some guesswork about who Anna really was. I tried to piece together the little secret that supposedly made her valuable to the KGB, but no event in the film offered any clue about this secret.

It wasn’t surprising that this film ended up being unimpressive, as that’s often the result when one person directs, writes, and produces a movie. The workload was obviously too much, which likely contributed to the film’s underwhelming outcome.

What frustrated me the most was the presence of Cillian Murphy in this film. I feel his profile was diminished by taking part in this project. Nevertheless, he’s the only reason I watched it to the end. His facial expressions and manner of speech during the slow-paced scenes gave me just enough motivation to see if the film would have an exciting ending.

One thing that also left me puzzled was Anna's substitute each time she went on a murder mission. Who was this person? There was no conversation, no planning—nothing. The substitute just miraculously showed up whenever it was time for a switch, with no explanation as to why Anna was being substituted.

I also disliked how Anna went about killing people. There was no interesting background information on her victims. All we know is that Olga would point her to a person or place, she’d grab a gun, and the next thing you know, someone is dead. It’s almost laughable.

I rate it a 3/5. Do I recommend it? Absolutely not.