Anna (2014)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I was looking for something different and came across this 2013 movie on Amazon streaming. It stars Taissa Farmiga, the younger sister of Vera Farmiga, as Anna Greene, bright but mysterious wealthy teenager who decided to quit eating. Taissa really was a teenager when this was filmed and she is quite good in the role.My summary says it is set in an alternate universe, because from what we now know the techniques likely will never be available in our own real universe. An investigator, played by Mark Strong, is among a group who can use a technique while holding hands with a subject, in this story it is young Anna. This transports the investigator back in time and is an invisible observer of what happened sometimes years earlier, he sees and hears the subject and those with her.All this is to help young Anna overcome whatever difficulties she has and to lead a more normal life, otherwise her mom and stepdad are planning to institutionalize her.The difficulty is, the visits to her past are only as faithful as are her own memories, if she manipulates her memories the investigator might be seeing something that didn't really happen that way. And, as the story unfolds, it seems that maybe Anna is too smart for the investigator.Well made thriller it kept me engaged all the way through.

The atmosphere is there in the big empty mansion like it was haunted, perfect as setting for a horror/mystery film. As the film progresses, the story becomes confusing and more questions raised and no answers in the end makes the whole thing confusing and forgettable. Rating 6.5/10 is stretching a little far. Why'd Anna want to send John to jail? What'd she get out of this? It's very ungrateful seeing John has no other intention than trying to cure her, while making a living in the process. How'd she manage to wake up before John, changed her memory and able to to manipulate him, when he's supposed to be an expert in this? And why'd his own memory of his wife dying just happen to pop up unnecessarily and it so happened during all those crucial moments? If she was locked inside her own room and supposed to have no outside interaction, why'd she be seen outside by John and if that wasn't her, who was it? It happened more than once so it couldn't just be explained as John's mere imagination. And why and what'd she be doing outside? She's been locked inside and apparently no contact with anybody or did anybody want anything to do with her, deeming her as a psycho. At the end when John was chasing Anna into the forest, who was that man standing at the top of the hill? Who locked John in the surveillance room? Whose blood was on Anna's hand when she hugged him? What happened to whoever that person was? Did she stab her own mother? Why? Where was Anna in the end when John was in jail? What happened to her? Still locked in her room, for eternity? Nothing much is explained like the writer himself has no answers to them either and all these confusing elements are just jumbled and thrown into the story to make it feel more mysterious when in fact it just comes across as confusing to the point of annoying. Nothing makes sense and I don't bother whatever happens to the plot or characters anymore. Mark Strong is the reason why I'd stay with this film till the end. The girl just comes across as spoilt and pain in the a**, unbelievable as a manipulative yet innocent girl who somehow manages to outsmart an older and experienced adult and sent him to jail for no reason at all. As a TV movie, it's ok to see just once for free. I wouldn't pay to see this mediocre film.

It's always tough for a movie that tries to twist its way into your brain (no pun intended), to be 100 % successful. Still this has the actors to pull things off quite nicely. Mark Strong especially and Brian Cox in a smaller role are able to convey a very crazy idea to the viewer. You could say the idea is "far out".But good science fiction is always bending boundaries. And the tapping into someones mind thing is not really new. There is more on the story that is apparent on the surface of course and there is a running theme, that is too obvious, but maybe a bit too much, if you think about it after watching the movie. Decent effort, but not really great

Mindscape has a good material in it. Reading other people's memory is good enough to make a nice film. But this movie definitely failed to do that. I feel like this movie seems like a chef made a bad dish out of fresh and delicious ingredients.First, it has sloppy story lines. From the first time, it was so obvious the way the story goes, and it went exactly the way I expected. The main characters are both handsome and attractive, but Mark Strong(John) was too dumb in the movie. I felt that there was some love line between John and Anna, but it was not interesting nor understandable.There were too many things going on in movie, from the John's wife, roses and to Mousey. But I don't think the movie gathered the things very well. Lots of pieces left a just part of the movie, so sometimes I wondered "is it really necessary in this movie?".If you are a big fan of these kinds of movie, you can watch it. I cannot really recommend this movie to other movie fans. I give 6 out of 10.