Movie Review, ‘Anna’
By Randy Pelish
I remember as a 14-year-old boy, the excitement I felt seeing Sean Connery portray James Bond for the first time. That was in 1962. I had to wait almost 57 years to repeat the experience.
Anna is an unforgettable and instantly iconic masterpiece. Writer/director Luc Besson has given us a complex, seductive story of one young woman’s journey through life as a KGB assassin. Set in the last years of the Soviet Empire, the complex, cynical world of CIA/KGB duplicity and savagery is here in abundance.
When this intelligent, sensual beauty, who has already endured enough tragedy in her short life, is swept up by the KGB and trained as an assassin, we sense more disaster. We will not be disappointed.
Sasha Luss as Anna, is marvelous. She is also a stunning beauty. Her performance leaves nothing to be desired. She dominates the screen the same way Connery did many years ago in as James Bond in Dr. No. We cannot take our eyes off her.
The supporting cast is uniformly excellent, but I should make special mention of veteran Helen Mirren, whose performance seems to be inspired by the legendary Lotte Lenya (Colonel Kleppin in From Russia with Love) is especially compelling. Her multi-layered portrait of a monster—she is Anna’s control agent—will go down in film history.
Shot on location in grim Moscow and elegant Paris, Anna is a film that will attract a lot of attention. It should.
Anna is currently playing in movie theaters in Reno and Sparks.
