The problem facing Jorge Dorado with his first English language feature Anna is that we live in a post-Inception world. The standard now demanded by audiences from any film tagged as a psychological thriller is so high that any writer or director entering the genre is immediately up against it. For that reason alone Dorado must be admired for his bravery and through a combination of impressive acting and clever direction he almost, almost succeeds.
Anna (Taissa Farmiga) is a troubled young woman who has entered into a hunger strike as her parents refuse to allow her to leave the house. John (Mark Strong) is a memory detective employed by a firm called Mindscape to establish the cause of Anna’s problems, whether she is a sociopath or suffered some extreme trauma in her past. As he investigates and enters Anna’s mind he begins to questions what he sees and must discover what is real and what is fake.
As stated above the key elements in Anna are the cast and crew who manage to elevate what is a fairly standard but interesting story above the mediocre into something that is intriguing and entertaining. Farmiga is impressive as the haunted and secretive teen and manages to convey just enough mystery as to leave the viewer suspicious as to her motives and whether or not she really is the victim. Strong is his usual, dependable self in a role that never stretches him but that he handles with enough gravitas mixed with vulnerability as to be convincing. Dorado achieves the difficult task of keeping the audience at arms length, allowing you to know just want he wants you to and as a result the reveal when it comes is still something of a surprise if not entirely satisfactory.
The difficulty for Anna is that as a film it does very little wrong. All the ingredients are of the highest quality and are well put together but there is something lacking; that star quality that raises a film like Inception to the next level. It is perhaps more to this films detriment that it comes only 4 years after Nolan’s game changing behemoth and the memory of it is still very fresh. No matter how good Anna may be it will always be judged against it’s peers and unfortunately this can only be detrimental.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Dorado’s film is an interesting and well delivered thriller with strong performances throughout that is perfect Friday night entertainment. Farmiga shows promise for the future and it is always good to see Strong in a lead role proving he can carry a film, and Dorado displays enough aesthetic style to be worth keeping an eye on. Anna will keep audiences guessing while watching, it just might not live too long in the memory.
