I was tempted to give this 10/10 simply to compensate for the idiots who gave this film 1 and 2 out of 10. I didn't ultimately but it gives me the sh*ts when I see people unfairly rating down a film. With an average 6/10 I might not have watched this - and it was a genuinely decent film. The story is coherent and the plot competent. The way in which the central event of the film is slowly revealed is sophisticated and worked well. Both Charlotte Rampling and Gabriel Byrne are top rate leading actors and both do a good job. Rampling's performance was particularly convincing. Casting mature actors in these lead roles (without making a big thing about it) was quite believable and worked really well. The setting, the cinematography, the late-night London insomniac noir all create a compelling atmosphere. It's a genre film and, as such, isn't fabulously original, but is nonetheless well worth watching.
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Lucy-westmore15 October 2012The erroneous synopsis to this stylish if slightly flawed thriller, does not do the intricate, complex story the justice it deserves. Barnaby Southcombe's debut feature is an adaption of Elsa Lewin's dark novel of the same name. Shot in various locations around London, it unravels the story of the relationship between a high ranking detective (Gabriel Byrne) investigating the murder of a no good low life, and a middle aged divorcée, Charlotte Rampling, with whom he develops a potentially damaging obsession. The film unfolds slowly but is worth the wait. The film engages the viewer as the pace quickens and story intensifies and things just gets better and better. Strong performances from the two stars as one would expect. A wonderful vehicle for Charlotte Rampling to prove a woman over 50 can be just as sexy and alluring as any 25 year old, she is totally convincing as the fragile, complex protagonist. And a real treat to have Eddie Marsan on screen, every film is improved by his presence, never puts a foot wrong, superb. London is a stylish but never overwhelming backdrop to this pleasing contemporary film noir. And a cracking soundtrack too...
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corrosion-225 July 2012I, Anna is an above average film noir atmospherically filmed in London. The usual noir elements are present: the cop with a failed marriage, the female suspect with whom the cop falls in love, nice use of London locations and cinematography to match it. The two leads are expertly played by seasoned actors Gabriel Byrne and Charlotte Rampling. It is a promising debut for Barnaby Southcombe, who has added a new element in his adaptation of the source novel, which has given greater depth to the story and characters.
A trivia point: Barnaby Southcombe is the real life son of Charlotte Rampling! -
nzpedals18 April 2016There are so many strands that make up the story, and very little to connect them together. But it is well worth watching a second (or more) time just to get the whole picture (!)
Charlotte Rampling is so good, so convincing as the middle-aged woman, now separated and living with a daughter and grandchild. But there is a past incident, very important to what else is happening, briefly referred to a couple of times that isn't really explained - perhaps a tragedy involving another child?
Every now and then, there is a flashback with Anna now wearing a bright red dress. That's a signal to us to change our focus and concentrate and try to join the scenes together.
Gabriel Byrne is the cop who becomes attracted (no surprise there!) to Anna. A very good performance. -
Any film starring Charlotte Rampling is worth watching just for her presence alone - even after nearly fifty years in the movies, she still adds an enigmatic quality that's hard to define.
She is very much centre stage in "I, Anna". Not so surprising really, it was directed by her son, Barnaby Southcombe, who, it must be said, directed his mum in some pretty challenging scenes.
The story is complex and hard to follow. Although it does make more sense by the end, it isn't by much. It is also a film that may have visited the "is it real or is it just imagined" plot one time too many.
The story has a number of strands that eventually wind together. Anna Welles (Charlotte Rampling) is searching for a relationship through a speed-dating club run by Louise (Caroline Catz). She lives with her daughter, Emmy (Hayley Atwell) and baby grand daughter - or does she?
Gabriel Byrne as policeman, DCI Bernie Reid, is investigating the murder of a middle-aged man in a high-rise apartment. During the course of his investigation, he meets Anna in the apartment building, but later, she doesn't remember the occasion at all. Reid follows Anna and joins the dating club to make contact with her.
The film also involves a young guy who shared the unit with the murdered man. However, without giving too much of the plot away, I feel that Anna and DCI Reid's motivations remain unclear even at the end. Is she a femme fatale or just delusional? Is he captivated by her or using an unorthodox method to solve the murder case? The film is just too obscure all the way through - like a sketch that needed a lot more colour and brushwork to finish it off.
A movie such as "I, Anna" must also compete with first class, movie-length television series such as "Vera", "Lewis" and "Wallander" to name a few, which have complicated, well thought out plots and brilliant characterisations - the competition is hefty, and I don't think "I, Anna", after a promising start, really ups the ante all that much.
Despite the presence of the perennially enigmatic Charlotte Rampling, the story is just too thin, and has a denouement that we've seen before in other movies. -
Samuel-Shovel3 January 2018I, Anna tells the story of a blossoming relationship between a middle-aged divorcee and a Chief Inspector investigating a murder. The two meet near the crime scene and the detective quickly finds himself enamored with this charming woman. As our story unfolds, it soon becomes clear that Anna is not the woman that she appears to be.
This movie is a slow-burner that takes a little bit of patience to get into. Once the movie picks up momentum though, it is a rather enjoyable experience. The acting of the two leads is great, I'd expect nothing less from these two. And the presence of Eddie Marsan is appreciated, he's wonderful as always. These great actors, combined with a wonderful backdrop (I really felt the London-ness of it all), a good soundtrack, and a serviceable direction by Southcombe, make this movie work on some level.
The twist was something that I saw coming. The fact that we never see her daughter/granddaughter interact with anybody but Anna or that when we see Anna walking the stroller, we never get a view of the baby, made me realize that something was clearly amiss. As it becomes clear that Anna is our murderer, it was easy to tell that Anna had some type of psychological issue. I think Southcombe could have done with out the stroller-walking scene and made the twist a tad less obvious.
It's not a perfect movie but as far as neo-noirs go, there are a ton of terrible ones out there that this one far surpasses. It's nice to see the noir genre get an older female femme fatale who doesn't meet the stereotype of the archetype. -
sergelamarche19 June 2021Small film made for TV. Very well done. Charlotte is great at playing the disturbed. I felt a disturbance in the force.
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Passably interesting drama concerning a woman, Anna (Charlotte Rampling), attempting to find another partner - she frequents singles gatherings - and a detective, Bernie (Gabriel Byrne), coming off a marriage separation, who pass each other at a ground-floor, elevator door of an apartment building in which a man has been battered to death overnight in one of the lodgings.
Bernie finds an umbrella, in the elevator, which Anna forgot about as she walked away. Instead of returning the item, Bernie, later on, traces her car license, establishes her address and sets about meeting her again - at one of those singles gatherings. All this while he's investigating - actually, getting his number two, Kevin (the always-terrific Eddie Marsan), to carry the load - said gruesome murder. A sub-plot about a teenager needing money to pay back dealers muddies the waters, so to speak, implicating him as a suspect in the murder of the man - who happens to be his father; and who is, incidentally, a most unpleasant character.
As the main plot unfolds, we see - in flashback - what Anna did at her previous singles thingy, the night before; which also begins to suggest she might be involved with the murder. But, how? Well, that's what Bernie frantically tries to find out. And which I'll leave you to enjoy at your leisure. The denouement, however, will give you pause to think about just how well you know - or ever can know - another person.
Rampling always performs well in heavy dramas; in this, she does better than other roles she's had. Byrne, over the years, just seems to get parts that meld perfectly with his laid back - some might call it lazy - style of acting. Indeed, Bernie appears to be almost sleep-walking much of the time. The stand-out, though, in this offering is Eddie Marsan who, unfortunately, is not used enough; always a pleasure to watch his performance. The rest of the cast is uniformly good.
As for the movie's director of this well-constructed movie, it's more than interesting to note that Barnaby Southcombe is actually Rampling's son. Nothing like keeping things in the family, I guess....
If ten is top prize, this gets five.
July 26, 2015. -
blanche-230 November 2016Charlotte Rampling stars in I, Anna from 2012, directed by her son Barnaby Southcombe, who also wrote the screenplay.
It's the rather disjointed, noir-ish story of a woman, Anna (Rampling) and her relationship with a police detective Bernie Reid (Gabriel Byrne) who is searching for a killer. He becomes obsessed with Anna, who is attractive, sexy, divorced, with a daughter and granddaughter.
Charlotte Rampling has always been a unique actress. She's kind of a modern-day Lauren Bacall, androgynous, a wonderful actress who has allowed herself to age like a normal human being. Here she shows her sexuality and her beauty as the audience learns more and more about her.
The film skips around a lot and can be confusing at times. There is also a character, a young guy, who has no reason to be in the movie at all. Not only is his subplot not developed, we never find out how it ends.
Actually we don't find out how anything ends in this film. We think that someone is going to explain everything that went on but they don't.
If the photography is strange, it's also beautifully done. There's no question that Barnaby Southcombe has talent; it just needs to be developed a little more. With a better script and with all the fine actors in the film, this could have been a knockout. -
boogschutter-791-36631629 June 2013I didn't like it at all, I kept unmoved and bored. And, after reading the fact that the film director was Rampling's son, I understood everything... Awfully bad directed. Not even an actor of the calibre of Mr Byrne can save this movie from being a bad version of a film noir. Sorry for Ms Rampling but even her was not convincing at all. I also spotted a scene at a beach where the sea was just a theatre set! That was really bad. There was a static view of the sea just behind the figure of Ms Rampling. I was so distracted by this fact that I had to rewind a little to see if I lost anything from the plot. Won't recommend it.
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Enjoyed this film. Thought it had an interesting take on London, showing us a different city to the one often seen in films. The stylised way it was shot might be too much for some people but I really liked it and felt it gave the film a great atmosphere. London looked wonderful.
Add to that some subtle and nuanced performances, particularly from Charlotte Rampling who really carries it. She was superb. There are some weaknesses and it won't be a film that appeals to everyone but if you do fancy watching something that requires you to think, is atmospheric, beautifully filmed and acted then I, Anna is worth watching. -
Great atmospherics. A good take on aging and isolation. Rampling is superb as an older-middle aged, lonely divorcé entering the dating scene. Byrne fantastic as the flawed, troubled detective, trying to track down the killer of a sleazy drug dealer.
My "but" here is Rampling's character Anna. She has a back story, to be sure. Her use of public pay phones -- where would you even find them even in London of eight years ago? -- hints at this. So does the never-seen bedroom in her apartment. So far, so good. But the reveal is a five-second shot in a police station, which I almost missed if I had not paused and gone back a minute or two. And the eventual expansion of that bit of information in the last 15 minutes of the movie is ambiguous at best.
Byrne's detective is not given much of a story either. He has separated from his wife and living in a central London hotel -- kind of expensive for his presumed salary, I think -- but that's all we know. The plot involving the first suspect, a 15-year old step son of the victim, seems a bit tacked on.
That said, the directing and cinematography is haunting. London's brutalist Barbican development looks cold and mildly sinister. (Americans may think it is a low income housing project but the residents are actually middle class, professional types).
One of the spookiest scenes: Anna is in the ladies room at the Hilton, where the speed dating takes place. She encounters a much older woman, perhaps in her 70s, over dressed, too much makeup, and far too old for the crowd outside, who encourages Anna to "go for it." Just 30 seconds of the movie but I keep thinking, what's HER story? Is she even real? Restroom advice is always pretty bad in movies -- think of the Shining and Jack Nicholson' chat with the bartender -- but this proves to be a pivotal point in the film.
So great acting. Excellent directing. This movie would warrant a nine on my star-scale, were it not for the script. -
cekadah1 April 2014This is one of those trick flicks that tosses out multiple characters with multiple stories making you think it will all come together at some point.
Ha Ha! You won't find that here!
The most this flick gives is a few artsy views of London made all moody with overcast skies. The story jumps around, cops race around, Anna is forever on the move with that fractured wrist. And just what was that teenage guy up to? It's never made clear.
Loose ends throughout. But I stuck with it thinking it would all come together.
By the end of the movie you want to just scream "JUMP - PLEASE"! -
perez-j-alberto3 August 2016Super slow start & middle and with predictable end. I only got through it because I was working on an art project whilst "watching/listening"... I can watch anything with Rampling, but this nearly disproved that theory. More than anything the film with its sluggish pace and obviousness of plot twists. The cop was like Peter Falk playing Columbo. It was comic how he seemed to be stumbling around. In fact, overall the photography was terrific. It was the script that made it the story cumbersome, self-indulgent and obvious. If only the camera didn't love Rampling's face so much, her expressive eyes... I would have stopped after 10 minutes.
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bursell-1747018 February 2018I wish I could, somehow, regain the 93 minutes I wasted in watching this film ... a film I had hoped would "come together." Even some basic explanations would have helped along the way ... e.g., how did she hurt her arm? who "magically" put a cast on it? In terms of production, as noted by another reviewer, I was shocked to see the large fake beach scene (a theater prop) accompanied by the sounds of waves and birds. But ... totally stationary. Any "willing suspension of disbelief" was totally blown away. This level of production was, IMHO, beneath the calibre of some of the major stars. Not asking to be spoon fed along the way ... just a little sense of continuity and credibility. What a disappointment.
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eleanoryule8 December 2012This is a brilliantly crafted and paced film with a deep understanding of the Noir genre. It also contributes to the very small canon of films that depict mature female screen characters, rarely seen in the UK fictional media. The cinematography is acute and the lighting extraordinary. the music bold and moody noir. The denouement is not predictable, even though you think it might be, and it taps deeply into real emerging social issues in the UK - so even though noir is often style over content there is a real message to this film which works on you long after the viewing. But the world it creates is steady, fascinating and waiting for you....
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st-shot23 June 2017Love seems to be blinding in this tepid suspense film featuring the world weary presence of Charlotte Rampling and Gabriel Byrne operating with distracted lonely hearts. While they may have an excuse director Barnaby Southcombe has none as his smoke and mirror distractions to deny the stretched out obvious story line along with a poorly edited far fetched finale that smacks of modern day DW Griffith, the dating disastrous. .
Anna Welles (Rampling) readies herself for another round of a singles get together. Divorced and in her 50s she meets George and goes back to his apartment with him. He's later found dead. Detective Bernie Reid (Byrne)runs into her the next day near the scene retrieving an umbrella and again at the dating session where she does not recall meeting him (Hmmmm?). Director Southcombe direction is ambitious but with weak material as it offers up a couple of drab alibis in a surly pair of marginals that are clearly a long shot as we begin to piece together the unstable psyche of Anna. Seasoned investigator Reid should clearly know better but remains clueless and goes rogue over a woman he only thinks he knows after a few meetings. In addition to the murder Southcombe makes a statement about aging and the demeaning speed dating game as well as make victim George a justifiable homicide. Another tragedy precedes as well to cloud matters but compelling as it is it adds little to the mystery and the fact Anna is one forgetful lady that might be forgiven for a lot of things.
Rampling understated look and sound of indifference usually controls the mood of most of her films. Here she is wasted, her performance for the most part catatonic. Byrne's histrionics at the end wake up a dull performance best left sleeping, while Eddie Marsan's cop associate could use some sedation. Perhaps the film's finest moment and performance is the cameo of Honor Blackman as Joan putting on her game face in a ladies room and pointedly summing up the way it is. -
uudo-059232 May 2020Good actors, maybe good script, goes on after one hour. Too late.
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cajoseph-2019323 November 2017AT the end I wish Bernie had just let Anna jump or better yet pushed her off the ledge. Caught this on Netflix in 2017. I THINK that the daughter and the grand-kid were BOTH imaginary - hence the baby sleeping sign was always on the door. Why was Anna phoning her own apartment from a phone booth? And what's with the old-fashioned touch phone in 2015? Where did the itchy cast on her broken arm come from - did she get it from killing the match.com date? London is photographed like NYC (Gotham) in a Batman movie and I half expected to see the Caped Crusader and Catwoman appear. This is a plot? HE'S a newly divorced cop (DCI Bernie Kominski - a Brit police chief with a Borsch Belt name and demeanor) who stumbles around like he's taken far too many of those Ambien pills he's seen swallowing. SHE'S a lonely, sixtyish woman who works selling mattresses in a department store and hallucinates she's living w/her (non-existent?) daughter and dead grand-kid. She does in-person speed-dating and during the process runs into a rough-trade character. During a sex hook-up with the dude she kills him in self-defense and can't remember the killing happened, much less that she did the deed herself. OY VEY Bernie! She ALSO doesn't remember that while day-dreaming during a babysitting stint she got forgetful (again) and let her grand-kid run off and get killed by a car. So she goes to the park and pushes an empty swing. Bernie gets to investigate the gory murder and despite his attraction to Anna, comes to suspect her and when he comes in for the arrest, she steps out onto the edge of the high-rise and threatens to jump. He pulls Anna (now the love of his heart) back. End of film....
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Charlotte Rampling and Gabriel Byrne are always so right and authentic. Throughly enjoyed this movie, and the twist made it even better.