Cillian Murphy

  • Anna (2019)

    Anna (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, December 2020) Every storyteller has their favourite archetypes, and based on the evidence I’m sure that writer-director Luc Besson’s go-to is that of a female assassin. (Also one much younger than he is – and that’s been known for a while.) Anna is something like the seventh dip into that kind of character after, …let’s see…, Nikita, Point of No Return, Leon (split archetype), Bandidas (somewhat), Colombiana and Lucy (sort of). It’s probably the dullest of the lot, too. Our heroine is a product of the Soviet assassin training program who finds herself in Paris living the life of a supermodel by day, assassin by night. Turning to become a double agent, she really is fighting for her freedom to disappear. The rest is action sequences, tough-person posturing, an enjoyable turn from Helen Mirren, some standard spy fiction tropes, and reasonably energetic direction. Anna is an unobjectionable time killer, although the tortured timeline filled with flashbacks and skip-forwards is better suited to mathematical exam questions than casual watching. I’m not that susceptible to Slavic blondes like Sasha Luss, but she does generally well, and is supported by the likes of Luke Evans and Cillian Murphy. Besson-as-director can deliver the strict minimum (and occasionally a bit more, like the restaurant scene) but I’m not seeing any evidence of trying to become any better. (And with recent affirmations of his terrible behaviour, it’s not clear if he’ll get to direct another film any time soon.) If he does write something else, let’s hope he tries to do something different than another female assassin.

  • Retreat (2011)

    Retreat (2011)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2013) As far as intimate thrillers go, it’s hard to be purer in intent than Retreat: It features a mere handful of characters, and setting whose isolation becomes a crucial portion of the plot.  It begins when a married couple seek an escape from their troubles by spending a week on a deserted island, alone on an empty estate.  They are surprised by a solider claiming that a plague has swept through the globe in their absence, and that they must protect themselves against a possible intrusion.  Things get more complicated afterward, but no less tense as the married couple seems woefully unprepared to deal with their dangerous new companion.  Thandie Newton and Cillian Murphy headline the small cast: much of the film’s tension relies on the interactions between three characters.  The spatial restraint is such that one could easily imagine this story done as a theater piece.  The cold and damp setting works to the film’s claustrophobic advantage, and the script is occasionally ingenious in how it gradually ratchets up the tension without necessarily taking the obvious path.  (There’s a notable absence of sexual tension once that question is quickly defused, for instance) The conclusion may be a bit too nihilistic, but it does feature a nice reversal of expectations.  While Retreat may not be a likable film in the most conventional sense of the word, it is an interesting exercise in suspense, perhaps most effective as an antidote to a steady diet of higher-budgeted overblown thrillers.