Taglines: Don’t let her in.
Mindscape movie storyline. In the near future or an alternate reality, there are memory detectives, people who have the ability to enter other people’s electronically-aided memories. They often are used to resolve psychological conflicts, and sometimes to exonerate someone from a crime. John was at one time the top in this field, but he has been recovering from the death of his wifey, and a stroke. To get back into work the head of the small firm he works for offers him what is supposed to be a simple job – getting 16-year-old Anna to start eating again. However, the “simple job” turns into his most challenging.
Mindscape (also known as Anna) is a 2013 internationally co-produced psychological thriller film, and the directorial debut of Spanish filmmaker Jorge Dorado. The film stars Taissa Farmiga, Mark Strong, Noah Taylor, and Brian Cox. The screenplay was written by Guy Holmes and follows John, a detective with the ability to enter people’s memories; he takes on the case of a brilliant but troubled 16-year-old girl, Anna, to determine whether she is a sociopath or a victim of psychological trauma.
Mindscape celebrated its world premiere at the 46th Sitges Film Festival, opening the Official Fantàstic Competition on October 13, 2013. StudioCanal handled the film’s distribution in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, as well as its international sales, and financed the picture. The film subsequently screened at the Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer, the Glasgow Film Festival, and the Dallas International Film Festival.
Warner Bros. released the film in Spain on January 24, 2014. Vertical Entertainment picked up the thriller from StudioCanal on the eve of the European Film Market for North America. The film was re-titled Anna for its North American release. The film received a video on demand release on May 6, 2014, prior to being released in a limited release on June 6, 2014. Mindscape was released in Singapore on May 8, 2014, and in Japan on September 27, 2014. It was released in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2014, and had its television premiere there on December 29, 2015, on Film4.
Film Review for Mindscape
Nominated for a Goya for best new director this past awards ceremony, at 37 years old George Golden premieres one of the Spain-USA co-productions. most anticipated in recent months: Mindscape, a psychological thriller wrapped in science fiction. Produced by Jaume Collet-Serra (“House of Wax”, “The Orphan”) in co-production with Antena 3 and Studiocanal, and distributed by Warner Bros., the story is set in the not too distant future, where there are mind detectives, experts capable of delving into people’s memories.
John Washington (Mark Strong) is a specialist who has stopped practicing his profession for personal reasons: his wife committed suicide years ago and the memory of her death torments him when he accesses the memory of third parties. After spending several years inactive, his former boss (Brian Cox) offers him a seemingly simple case: getting young Anna (Taissa farmiga), a beautiful teenager with alleged sociopathy problems and daughter of one of the richest families in the United States, stop going on a hunger strike that has started for unknown reasons. Once Washington accesses the memories of the young woman to find the origin of her strange behavior, a dangerous game of deceit and lies will begin that will take the two protagonists to the limits tolerated by the mind.
Christopher Nolan sold From with the slogan “the mind is the scene of the crime”, but “Mindscape” is much more similar to this proposal. While the overrated film from the hallowed director of The Dark Knight focused on how thoughts can be manipulated by traveling to the different underworlds of the unconscious, Jorge Dorado exposes a much more interesting and honest issue: accessing people’s minds to observe their memories. I personally think it’s a much more legitimate idea and not as tricky and complex as Nolan’s. Dorado’s honesty in directing “Mindscape” is what makes the film an above-average product:
It doesn’t beat around the bush and gets straight to the point, without using the pompous explanations of the famous “plot revealers” (characters who exist solely and exclusively to explain the story – see Gordon-Levitt in “Inception”) or the voice-overs. That and the fact that Mark Strong and Taissa Farmiga’s acting is almost sublime. In addition, the scenes of Anna’s memories, although they are not very original, do have an enviable visual force thanks to the sound effects (I will never tire of saying that this is something fundamental in any audiovisual work), the use of montage and the pauses.
If there is something that achieves Dorado it is create a suspenseful atmosphere. The influence that movies like Vertigo y The silence of the lambs (examples recognized by the director himself in various interviews, by the way), or other science fiction titles such as Strange Days – that shares certain similarities in terms of the plot – is evident throughout the entire tape; the beautiful Farmiga barely blinks during the footage, you can appreciate the conflict of powers of the protagonists (although sexually inverted) and there are numerous references to the endless stairs that James Stewart found himself unable to climb in the denouement of the Hitchcock film. Therefore, using the best resources of the genre, “Mindscape” manages to create an oppressive, almost suffocating atmosphere that imprisons the viewer from the first minutes.
However, the deceptive mischief that the director apparently demonstrates behind the scenes is canceled out by a script with ups and downs, which turns surprises into obviousness; the story becomes predictable as the plot progresses. The evidence of the unexpected -or rather expected- reveals that a newcomer sits in the director’s chair.
Also, a very basic planning scheme (master shot, shot-reverse shot and the occasional chopped as an element of aesthetic insertion), which borders on the academic, reaffirms the lack of experience in the world of feature films. In interviews, Dorado stated that he was looking for simplicity so that the suspense would be more effective. However, if there is something that a good filmmaker is known for, it is for experimenting with the medium and leaving his mark on each sequence. The problem with “Mindscape” is that it is a neutral work, too “well done” narratively speaking to be taken seriously.
That, and that exposing the (un)expected turn of the outcome from the first minutes of footage is something very dangerous. The problem with movies that play with the perception of reality is always the same; The line between stupidity and good sense is very fine. and is sometimes easily confused. “Mindscape” doesn’t quite fall on either side of this line and, therefore, it’s hard to believe it.
The lack of originality turns “Mindscape” into a forgettable film, although it is nonetheless an above-average work, as I mentioned earlier. Good artistic works are not always masterful. Therefore, what he said about the “deceptive mischief” is explained; one has enough intelligence to create a work that is outstanding at the narrative level and that works quite well as a thriller but that at the direction level, and that’s where the hand of a good filmmaker shows, it lacks personality.
Mindscape (2014)
Anna
Directed by: Jorge Dorado
Starring: Mark Strong, Taissa Farmiga, Brian Cox, Saskia Reeves, Richard Dillane, Indira Varma, Alberto Ammann, Jessica Barden, Clare Calbraith, Julio Perillán, Rod Hallett, Frida Palsson
Screenplay by: Guy Holmes
Production Design by: Alain Bainée
Cinematography by: Óscar Faura
Film Editing by: Jaime Valdueza
Costume Design by: Clara Bilbao
Art Direction by: Laia Ateca, Colombe Raby
Music by: Lucas Vidal, John Ottman
MPAA Rating: R for nude sexual images.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures (Spain), StudioCanal (United Kingdom), Vertical Entertainment (United States)
Release Date: October 13, 2013 (Sitges), January 24, 2014 (Spain), June 6, 2014 (United States)
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