"Anna" Oh, Where Have You Gone?

The Trailer:

Director: Jorge Dorado

Cast: Taissa Farmiga, Mark Strong, & Brian Cox

Synopsis: A man (Mark Strong) who has the ability to enter peoples' memories,— known as a memory detective,— takes on the case of Anna (Taissa Farmiga), a troubled girl with a blurry past.

I had high hopes for this movie. The trailer looks amazing with an interesting story line, plus Taissa Farmiga is in it! And let me tell you I am a huge fan of Taissa's, ever since I saw her in American Horror Story. While "Anna" had it's moments of awe and wonder with such strange and luring characters, ultimately it failed with a plot that is so simple and predictable.

So we have Anna, a girl who is locked away in her room by her mother and stepfather. This is for her safety we learn, but as the movie progresses we begin to wonder if it's really for Anna's safety or for their's. Taissa plays this character seamlessly. At times she gives off an aura of beguiling innocence while at other times she is quiet, calm, manipulative and calculating. Then we have John (Mark Strong),— a memory detective whose work had become compromised due to his own traumas,— who takes on Anna's case thinking it would be an easy, clear cut assignment to get him back in the groove of  being a great memory detective. Mark Strong does a great job as the straight-faced memory detective, with a little too much compassion and concern for his disturbed patient, which will eventually lead to his downfall. Sebastian (Brian Cox) has a small role in the film as the catalyst that brings Anna and John together in the first place and also later helps John to realize Anna's true intentions. 

While the film had great acting and a subdued suspenseful mood throughout, the end is really what kills the quality of the movie for me. The plot is simple, as I said earlier and easily predictable, and yet the end seems like the writers wanted to add some "surprise" twist but ended up concocting an ending that doesn't sum up the movie. It didn't make any sense, no matter what angle you look at it and was poorly thought out. I was left with too many incredulous questions towards Anna's actions and John's complete lack of intelligence in response to her actions. The movie was good all the way until the ending. It's not a great movie, but it is good. 

Would I watch it again? Yeah, probably. But not for a long while.

"Another Me", Another Attempt At the Evil Twin

The Trailer:

Director: Isabel Coixet

Cast: Sophie Turner, Johnathan Rhys Meyers, Claire Forlani, Gregg Sulkin & Rhys Ifans

Synopsis: Fay (Sophie Turner), a teenage girl with an ailing father (Rhys Ifans) and a less than devoted mother (Claire Forlani), is followed by a mysterious doppelgänger who wants her life.

I'll admit, I was suckered into watching this movie based on the trailer alone. I did notice the low rating it had on IMDb, but completely ignored that and decided to watch the movie anyway. And after watching it, do I wish I hadn't? No, but I definitely wouldn't watch it again. It just wasn't anything I wanted it to be, it was rather underwhelming. 

First off, let me tell you what I liked about the movie. The casting was perfect. Anything with Anthony Rhys Meyers in it is something I will always be on board with, and this was no exception. It wasn't a groundbreaking role, but it was well acted and all it needed to be. Sophie Turner did an amazing job as Fay, the nervous, kind of insecure teenager. Rhys Ifans also fit well as the ailing, wheelchair bound father. I also enjoyed the setting of the movie; The apartment complex, the passing beneath the bridge, even the school had a gritty, almost grimy feel to it while also feeling crisp and very clear. And all the little moments of Sophie feeling like she's being followed, or us viewers seeing an unexplained shadow brings their own eeriness to the movie. But that's about it.

When making a movie about an evil twin/evil doppelgänger there needs to be something that sets it apart from other movies of the like, but this movie just didn't bring anything new to the table. For the most part the film moves at such a slow pace with nothing ever happening up until the last twenty minutes. And by that time I didn't even really care about Fay and whether the doppelgänger took over her life or not. Some scenes just seem to drag on forever, while adding little to no substance to the overall story. And then there are just too many instances where people,— neighbors, teachers, strangers,— tell Fay that they saw her in a place where Fay swears she wasn't. Okay we, the audience, have already figured out that there is a Fay double walking around by all the strange shadows and double reflections you keep showing us throughout the movie, do you really need to keep verbalizing it as well? And then the twist in the end isn't much of a twist and really just seems kind of sloppy. 

And what the fuck was the point of the constant squeaking swing sound? And the cracking glass? These are moments meant to signify that the doppelgänger is around, but they're really just annoyances after the millionth time that it's happened. They lost their sense of creepiness, blah.

Overall, this movie fell flat for me. There was nothing interesting or innovative about this movie. It either should have been a family drama about terminal illness of a family member and its effects on the rest of the family, or just a straight thriller about a girl with an evil doppelgänger. But putting both those story lines together just didn't work. It wasn't bad but it also wasn't good. This movie was just a lame effort at the tried evil twin story line with a waste of a good cast.

!!!SPOILERS AHEAD!!! 

Also, there are little things that really bother me about the movie. In the end, after we find out that the doppelgänger is actually Fay's twin sister, Lila, who died at birth and after Lila takes over Fay's body, Fay no longer has a scar on her hand that she did to herself earlier in the film. This is somehow supposed to signify that Lila is now in Fay's place, but this just doesn't make sense to me. If it's still Fay's body, but with Lila's spirit or soul inside of it, why would the scar be missing? Also, if Lila died at birth, how is she a teenage ghost?