Anna (2019)
★★½ — Anna (2019)
Luc Besson's Anna arrived in 2019 at a particularly difficult moment for the French director, whose reputation had taken a serious hit following allegations of sexual misconduct made in 2018 and the underperformance of his $180 million sci-fi spectacle Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). Produced through his own EuropaCorp banner alongside Summit Entertainment, Anna is very much a spiritual companion to Besson's earlier work, most obviously Nikita (1990) and Léon: The Professional (1994), following a young woman recruited as a Soviet-era assassin. The film marks the screen debut of Russian model Sasha Luss in a lead role, supported by Helen Mirren and Luke Evans, with location work spread across France, Russia, and Serbia. It opened quietly and failed to recoup its $34 million budget at the box office, taking in just over $31 million worldwide.
A-Z World Movie Tour Guadeloupe Luc Besson’s Anna is the cinematic equivalent of ordering your favorite dish at a restaurant, only to get a lukewarm microwave version with the same label. If you, like me, hold Léon: The Professional near and dear (where Jean Reno gave the performance of a lifetime and Besson’s direction feels electric) Anna lands like a soggy crumpet. It’s not a disaster, but it’s a letdown from a director who once made assassin ballets feel poetic. Sasha Luss plays the titular Anna, a model-turned-killer with a face that could kill… but mostly just stares blankly while doing it. There’s no spark here, no flicker of the magnetic intensity that made Jean Reno unforgettable. She’s less a character and more a mannequin in a catsuit, delivering lines like they’re IKEA assembly instructions. The supporting cast (including Helen Mirren and Cillian Murphy) try their best, but Besson gives them nothing to work with, like handing a symphony orchestra a kazoo and expecting jazz. The action scenes pop (slow-motion bullets, neon-soaked kills, and a dance sequence that’s visually slick) but they lack soul, feeling less like storytelling and more like a moodboard come to life. And the plot is a recycled game of spy-versus-spy that never commits to its own twists. By the end, you’ll wonder why anyone bothered keeping score. It's not all bad. Besson’s eye for color and composition still shine but when your film’s most memorable moment is a scene lifted from Kill Bill's outtakes, you’ve got problems.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2019 | Watched: 2025-06-23
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Luc Besson: The Fifth Element (1997) · Léon: The Professional (1994)
More from France: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Letter from Siberia (1957) · Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Here and Elsewhere (1976)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
