Anna (film) : Decent, but not Luc Besson's best work

To suggest that something that Luc Besson is involved in is bad is not a fair statement. I think that the major problem (at least for me) with his work is that I am always expecting / hoping for something as epic as "Leon / The Professional" and well, is that even possible?

ANИA is a film about espionage or more specifically, an unlikely member of said practice. The main character is an extremely pretty woman who is a high-level assassin for the KGB. Anna (played by Sasha Luss who as it turns out is a fashion model in real life) is a real stunner, and she is able to use her looks in order to gain access to powerful men by virtue of the fact that everyone is trying to get in her pants.

With a little help from her KGB friends organizing just the right circumstances for her to meet the right people who inevitably flirt with her, she is able to get up close and personal with powerful people that the KGB wants dead and well, do precisely that.

I don't have a problem with that and it seems rather like a sexy "Hitman" (the video game) in that the most important part of her kills is getting access and then sneaking away. It becomes a bit impractical at certain points where she has a punch up with 30 or 40 bodyguards or members of the military and of course, wins. I'm not saying a woman can't be a badass, the women's division of MMA certainly proves that isn't the case. But when Sasha Luss weighs like 95 lbs and kicks the crap out of a room full of dudes while wearing heels.... I gotta call BS.

The film also relies quite heavily on "time-travel" whenever there is a plot twist (and there are several) where we go back to a previous scene to see aspects of it that we were previously not shown and this completely changes the story. This is fine from time-to-time but this film utilizes this technique so frequently that you don't know where you are in the time and space. Did this already happen? Why is she not modeling anymore? She's being followed on vacation? Is she still on vacation? Are we now back in time to a point before she was ever recruited by the KGB? WTF is going on???

Overall this is still a fantastic film if you are comparing it to almost any other film but for me anyway, i hold Luc Besson to higher standards that your average run-of-the-mill filmmaker. The theme is also something that we frequently see from the man and if i had to rank Anna, Lucy, and Leon in order of awesomeness, this film would get the bronze medal.

It seems as though the general public kind of agrees with me because this film failed to make its relatively modest budget of $30 million back.

The performances by relative newcomer Sasha Luss, Cillian Murphy, and especially Hellen Mirren are pretty fantastic and even though I was a bit disappointed with the film overall, I still think it is worth seeing and therefore me and Chuck still think you aughta have a looksee if you get a chance. I just wouldn't go too out of your way to make that happen because, well, it can wait.