LFF 2012: I, Anna***

Writer-director Barnaby Southcombe offers up a tense, dreamlike noir that celebrates his charismatic mother, actress Charlotte Rampling, with I, Anna. This downbeat thriller that features one of London’s most imposing pieces of architecture, The Barbican, uses the sinister facades as well as retro finishes – old fashioned phones – to set a stylish murder scene. It’s much like a British ‘Sea of Love’ in plot, but with a less convincing storyline.

Rampling plays a femme fatale with amnesia, an attractive, middle-aged woman called Anna Welles who is single and favours visiting speed dating evenings over staying in. After one such dating encounter with George Stone (Ralph Brown) she finds herself in trouble, while falling for the senior detective in charge of the murder case, Bernie (Gabriel Byrne).

With or without her son’s help in this, Rampling gives her usual beguiling performance, giving her character intrigue and pose with every paused thought in close up. She seems suitably cast opposite Byrne as the melancholy, down-on-his-luck cop, and the pair play off each other’s airs of mystery as best as they can.

The problem is, although this film is beautifully shot, giving it a sinister, gritty and detached atmosphere as these tragic characters interact in a cold urban environment, desperately looking for acceptance, the story doesn’t offer any real thrill or glimmer of excitement – even with Eddie Marsan as cynical D.I. Kevin Franks barking orders to pick up the intensity and pace.

The film is adapted from Elsa Lewin’s novel so there is the suggestion that a lot of the psychological aspects of the written word are lost in translation in the screenplay, leaving it all feeling a little wanting and lacking a vital thread throughout that leads to the end reveal. Still, as a first-time feature, Southcombe has cut his teeth with the noir genre, and with someone writing his next project, things could get interesting.

3/5 stars

By @FilmGazer

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