Rating of
3/4
Nikita Redux Still Entertains
Chris Kavan - wrote on 09/19/19
While Luc Besson doesn't have a perfect track record when it comes to his films, one thing he does right time and time again is gritty action. Anna may seem a bit too familiar for some - it shares much in common with the film that really put him on the map: La Femme Nikita, but give him credit - just because he goes back to the well, doesn't mean the taste isn't just as sweet.
Besson is also responsible for two films I consider near the top of the respective genres in Leon (The Professional) and The Fifth Element. And both Lucy and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets have their moments, even if they fall short of greatness. Anna isn't the top of his game, but it's not too far off. Model Sasha Luss, who had a small part in Valerian, is given the lead role here as a femme fatale Russian assassin who finds herself in the middle of a game of cat and mouse between the KGB and CIA - and through a series of flashbacks, we learn the true story, which is not as cut-and-dried as you think.
Luss is a combination of John Wick and Charlize Theron via Atomic Blonde - plus that Nikita comparison. From a junkie living with an abusive boyfriend, she catches the eye of Alex Tchenkov (Luke Evans), the KGB operative who essentially gives her a choice - work for Mother Russia or take a bullet. But even at this early stage, she has other plans - and settles for a five-year stint thinking she will eventually be able to get out. She also begins a relationship with him in turn. He introduces her to Olga (Helen Mirren, in pure steely ice territory) who runs her own special operations. And while her opinion of this raw talent is dubious, a knock-down, drag out fight in a restaurant proves she has what it takes - even if it takes her a little longer than six minutes.
She soon comes to realize that the only reason she was offered five years is that almost no agent makes it that far, and when she is introduced to the head of the KGB, Vassiliev (Eric Godon) she finds out that true freedom may never come without death. Enter Agent Lenny Miller (Cillian Murphy) of the CIA, who lost nine agents in one day thanks to Vassiliev and who is none to happy with his position atop the KGB. After a missions goes south, he recruits Anna - who is willing to go along with him in order to gain the freedom she was promised and, much like Tchenkov, also enters into a relationship with him.
The film delights in going back and forth between time periods - from her time as a fashion model, where she also has a relationship with fellow model Maud (Lera Abova) to past to the present - the film skips around while offering different angles of the same event. It soon becomes apparent that Anna is playing everyone like the chess game she always dominates - staying one move ahead of everyone, the Russians and the CIA - all working towards the one goal everyone promises but she knows no one will truly deliver: her freedom.
The action takes a page from the recent Wick films - the two biggest scenes - the restaurant fight mentioned above and the later KGB battles, are truly well choreographed and even delights in giving Anna unconventional weapons (a fork and more) to get her point across. Luss works well in the lead role, despite this being her first major role - Evans, Murphy and Mirren make a great trio to support her role. The film doesn't shy away from Anna's beauty at all, though it also doesn't make everything about her looks, either.
This is a solid action film that hits all the right notes for Besson. I just wish it didn't feel as familiar as it did, but I guess you go back to what you're good at and if it means more from the director, I'll take a bit of familiarity any day.
