I have found that there is a vast difference between love and sex. People oftentimes have sex with people that they are not in love with, as lovemaking requires putting the other's pleasure ahead of their own. Anora has plenty of sex but no love within it. I find the love for Anora rather puzzling as I did not laugh at the comedy nor feel touched by the drama.
Anora, who prefers going by Ani (Mickey Madison) is a brash New York sex worker. Owing to her comprehension of, if not fluency in Russian, she is tasked in entertaining Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), scion of a wealthy Russian oligarch. Vanya, who loves booze and broads, enjoys the many sexual encounters he has win Ani. Ani, in return, enjoys seeing how the other half lives. Soon, both are whisked into worlds of fantasy: Ani with the luxurious life, Vanya with his good-time girl.
Agreeing to stay a week for $15,000, there is more sex and then more partying in Las Vegas. Here, Ivan, to obtain a way to avoid going back to Mother Russia, asks Anora to marry him in a quickie wedding. Ani may or may not believe that Ivan is truly in love with her, but she agrees anyway.
The news of Ivan and Anora's marriage is met with shock, horror and anger once news reaches his parents. They tell Ivan's minder and henchman Toros (Karren Karagulian) to get Ivan and annul the marriage by the time they fly in from Russia. In total panic, Toros gets two other henchmen: Igor (Yura Borisov) and Garnick (Vashe Tovmasyan) to get Ivan and the new Mrs. Zakharov to agree to an annulment. Easier said than done, for Ivan manages to run away while Anora manages to beat Garnick and Igor up until she is finally subdued.
Toros begs Anora to accept the $10,000 she is offered to have the annulment, but she refuses. However, she agrees to roam the streets of New York in order to find Ivan. Eventually, he is located, completely sloshed out of his mind and being the wastrel that he always was. Once fierce mother Galina Stepanova (Darya Ekamasova) and more placid but irritated father Nikolai (Aleksey Serebryakov) arrive, they find more complications on the road to annulling this marriage. Will Ivan prove himself a man or a man-child? Will Anora get anything close to a happy ending to her fairy tale?
I know many people who absolutely love Anora, the movie not the hooker. Anora herself would argue that she is not a prostitute, and in a way, she is correct in that she is not a streetwalker. She does agree to exchange sex for money, so I would argue that she is a prostitute, but I digress. I watched Anora stone-faced, not laughing at what I understand is a comedy, not moved by any drama, and thoroughly puzzled on why it has such passionate fans.
I think it is because, for all the originality that writer/director Sean Baker has been lauded for here, I did not think this Eurotrash reworking of Pretty Woman was original or moving. I suppose that when Garnick and Igor are forced to hold Anora down, the entire scene was meant to be funny as this tiny woman manages to beat up these Russian goons. For me though, I thought Garnick and Igor were too gentle with her. I would have tied up Anora pretty quickly as she was totally out of control. If not for the fact that Anora is a Best Picture nominee, I would have probably walked out of the film when Ivan ran off and Anora is held prisoner, having lost all interest and horrified that I still had well over an hour if not more to go in this two hour and fifteen-minute film.
To my mind, the comedy in Anora felt forced. I suppose that the rampage at Ivan's crib was meant to be funny, but I didn't laugh. Similarly, I never thought these two were anywhere near in love with each other. Anora may have been, or she may have been in love with the wealthy, decadent world that Ivan lived in. Ivan, for his part, is someone that I figured would be a poor match for anyone, even someone like Anora, no sweetheart herself.
Not once did I believe that Anora was anywhere near in genuine love with Ivan. Not once did I believe that Ivan would stand up to his parents. Not once did I believe any of this. Worse, I did not like any of these people save for Igor, who is remarkably calm, quiet and polite throughout.
One of the issues that I had with Anora is its length. So much time is spent early on in showing Ivan's debauched world and the seemingly endless and graphic sex that I wondered if we could not have gotten to the Vegas wedding faster. I do not think that we needed that long New Year's Eve party or that long lost Vegas weekend. Come to think of it, I think the long search for Ivan in the New York underbelly could have been shorter too. Even after Anora finally agrees to the annulment, I wondered when will this movie end.
I cannot fault the performances, which were, I concede, good. Mickey Madison in her breakout role gets that Brooklyn accent well. Her Anora is vulgar, trashy and pretty strong to face off against even such bullies as Galina. Anora is a tough cookie, making her final scene work, in retrospect, better than perhaps I initially thought. Eydelshtein also did well as Ivan, the wastrel and immature man-child to whom video games and sexual encounters are basically interchangeable.
Though his role was smaller, Borisov lets Igor's generally quiet manner speak more than the hysterics of others. He has a wonderful bit of monologue where he talks to Anora on her last night at the Zakharov mansion, mentioning that he would not have hurt her. He also, again in a quiet manner, suggests quietly but firmly in front of everyone that Ivan apologize to Anora for all the trouble that he caused her. Never forceful, Borisov makes Igor a surprisingly complex henchman.
Again, I thought well of the performances after having some time to think on the film. However, I never found Anora funny, insightful or interesting. I thought it was longer than it should have been. Anora is not without its merits in terms of acting, but Anora is just not the girl for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Views are always welcome, but I would ask that no vulgarity be used. Any posts that contain foul language or are bigoted in any way will not be posted.
Thank you.