Set in the 1990s, “Anna” tells the story of the titular KGB assassin (Sasha Luss), who becomes a pawn in a tug-of-war between spy agencies. With Cillian Murphy’s Lenny on the CIA side and Luke Evans’ Alex and Helen Mirren’s Olga as Anna’s KGB contacts, the movie has plenty of action and espionage twists, as everyone is playing their own game and Anna is making plans to gain her freedom.
Luc Besson made “Anna” after his grand 2017 sci-fi movie “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.” While his “The Fifth Element” became the ultimate sci-fi cult classic, he failed to recapture lightning in a bottle. Instead, “Valerian” flopped at the box office rather dramatically, so it’s not strange that the filmmaker wanted to try something a little less labor-intensive with “Anna.” While critics have pointed out that this makes “Anna” seem extremely familiar to viewers who have seen Besson’s previous assassin-themed films, the movie’s Netflix success proves that this hasn’t stopped viewers from enjoying it for what it is.
