Director: Andrew Niccol
Writer: Andrew Niccol (Screenplay)
Starring: Clive Owen, Amanda Seyfried, Colm Feore, Sonya Walger, Mark O’Brien, Joe Pingue, Iddo Goldberg
Plot: In a world without anonymity or crime, a detective meets a woman who threatens their security.
Tagline – Off the grid. On the run.
Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Slow Thriller
Story: Anon starts as we go into the futuristic world where everything in life is recorded, making crime almost impossible to get away with, Detective Sal Frieland (Owen) analyses claims being made for his living deciding if the evidence to back up a story is there. His life is turned upside down when a mysterious girl (Seyfried) appears in his life only for any record being deleted.
When Sal goes undercover to learn about the girl, things start smoothly as they start to follow her movements, but soon take a turn for the worst as she discovers them watching her and turns Sal’s life upside down, to a point where he doesn’t know what is real anymore.
Thoughts on Anon
Characters – Sal is the detective with a troubled past, he witnesses a strange occurrence in the technology system to look for criminals and soon he goes undercover to track down a hacker who is using their ability to kill people. The Girl is the mysterious woman walking around this world with no known identity, helping people cover up the secrets they have been doing wrong. Detective Gattis is the man that keeps Sal in line, he must do the right thing to keep the peace in the city.
Performances – Clive Owen is good enough in the leading role, he knows how to handle the character but just doesn’t go as far into his character. Amanda Seyfried is fine too, again not reaching her potential we know she is capable off. The rest of the cast are largely forgettable too.
Story – The story follows a detective investigating a string of murders that involve a mysterious woman that has the skills to make herself invisible to the technology world. The story does put us in an interesting world, but soon it becomes forgettable throughout with nothing much happening, the twists don’t come with any impact, not even giving us a chance to be offered up the question about whether this is a good or bad thing to have in life. The story misses more often than hit and could easily have been more interesting in a longer format.
Sci-Fi – The sci-fi world we enter, is an interesting one and does use the elements of the idea well throughout. The use of the eyes to create the idea of what we can see makes things interesting to see, being the only highlight in the film.
Settings – The film is in a city, we don’t seem to see which one and it could be anywhere too.
Special Effects – The effects do work for the most part as we see what we are meant to, making most of this seem effortless, but the editing process for visions can be confusing and look weak.
Scene of the Movie – Seeing how people can see who people are.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Why would two cops cars go in different directions to the same location?
Final Thoughts – This is a disappointing sci-fi film that has all the potential in the world and only ends up coming off short on many levels.
Overall: Disappoint Sci-Fi Movie
Rating
