One of the ongoing burdens of a genre, any genre, is that copies, sequels, and assorted imitations are expected to do everything the predecessor(s) did, and then to make improvements. Of course, strict adherence to this concept would produce virtually identical movies - but sloppy adherence has produced nearly identical movies, for which there is an abundance of evidence. Enter Anna - using two primary tropes,
1. The Nikita syndrome and
2. The wobbling time step - where you go 3 years ago, 12 months ago, etc and then bounce back to the present, sometimes with a huge twist in the middle.
Anna performs flawlessly, with extreme attention to wonderfully violent fight scenes and nicely acted interludes of lust, depression, anger etc. Of course, Helen Mirren is beyond perfection in her own little hobbit-like character, dragging on cigarettes behind a wall of absolute stoicism.
All in all, a masterpiece, which reeks of originality by the very fact that no part of it is original.
Anna performs flawlessly, with extreme attention to wonderfully violent fight scenes and nicely acted interludes of lust, depression, anger etc. Of course, Helen Mirren is beyond perfection in her own little hobbit-like character, dragging on cigarettes behind a wall of absolute stoicism.
All in all, a masterpiece, which reeks of originality by the very fact that no part of it is original.