Anon

Loved this movie and it’s not even because I had a man crush on Clive Owen for a while and wanted him to be the next James Bond before Daniel Craig. It’s also not because Amanda Seyfried is a total Betty and shows off the cleavage and has a sex scene. No it’s just a good plot, good acting, and all around gripping entertainment. Every time I sat back to relax it brought me back tot he edge of my seat. I think the rating on IMDb don’t give it justice.

This film has a theme similar with the Black Murrow episode “The Entire History of You”. Technology embedded in the eye so that you can reply everything you’ve seen. You can store your memories like in a computer disk and go back to it whenever you want. 

In this movie they don’t need a key fob to go back and forth thru the material. It’s all done thru the eye. They never explain the tech itself and that is ok bc you don’t need that. Everyone has the tech in them and the idea is that not being anonymous is good. If you aren’t anonymous then you can’t hide from the law and the cops think everyone who wants to be anonymous is hiding something.

The movie starts by showing us how the eye tech works. A man, Detective Frieland (Clive Owens), is walking down the street gets a scan of everyone who walks by and it includes all personal details, right down to the name of their dog. He stops and looks at expensive watches and the tech shows him how it would look in him and of course this Clive fucking Owen so it looks top notch. Then he sees this totally hot babe and she doesn’t register. He thinks it’s a glitch so he scans her again but she doesn’t show up and noting showing up is bad because everyone must hiding something. 

Next we are introduced to how police investigations go in this future timeline. Basically it goes like this, people come to see Frieland in an interrogation room. He shows them what them thru his eyes what people have witnessed around the crime and he passes judgement. We see that he is a good guy when this rich lady, who is a total See You Next Tuesday accuses her made of Sterling a priceless bracelet. He shoes the women and image of the bracelet never being there with the cleaning lady. The lady is pissed and marches out. The assisting officer is like Detective you didn’t show her what happened a minute before. He was like ya and I didn’t show the maid selling the bracelet to afford rent either, she needed it, and that women was a see you next Tuesday. Basically this tells me our cop friend is a reasonable man. That there are shades of grey in law and sometimes the right thing to do is t always what the law says. This makes us like Det. Frieland. Not that we needed it but we find out our Botha’s lost a son, killed when he chased a balloons d ran into the street in front of a moving car. In typical fashion this has made his marriage crumble and she is now remarried. All very sad. 

Things get really interesting when our friend Frieland gets assigned his next case. A wealthy man is murdered but mans brain has been hacked and actually had to watch himself get murdered from the killers POV. The scenes are totally like first person role playing games like Bond for the N64. The cops are perplexed and the game is a foot.

This leads us down the path of the new age hacker. You don’t hack computers or steal millions from banks, you hack people and change what they see or what they did. Get a hooker and don’t want the wife to ask you for your time, get a hacker to re-write that time for you. Buying crack from the local drug dealer and don’t want to get caught, get a hacker they can make it look like you were at home rubbing one out all night. 

This also brings us into contact with the number 1 suspect the young female that didn’t show up in the scan before. The reason is because she started to erase herself from memories of the policeman that originally saw her. Then his boss who he shared the file with with to inquire about the glitch in the system. Her erasing herself and the murderer erasing themselves to was to much to be coincidence. 

By this time we have had two or three deaths all the same form. Vision hacked we see first person shooter POV and same gun and we got a serial killer ladies and gents. All people that hired a hacker to remove something from there time. So we send our friend Frieland undercover to get himself a hacker. He passes all on hackers until he gets himself the lady he was looking for. See our friend tell his hacker, whose name turns out to be Anon (Amanda Seyfried), that he has a girlfriend and he cheated on her with a hooker and needs the time fixed. So, she fixes it for cash and explains about time stretching and other types of hacks she is doing. She also tells him if he ever fucks with her he’d wish he was dead. Frieland asks one question to many and het get a gun pulled on him and it’s the same as the one in the death videos. 

Now the cops hirer hackers to track Anon. They get to look thru her eyes. We get to her look into the mirror naked and watch her bathe. Then we watched he do another back she is being paid for. However they can’t locate her. 

I just realized I’m writing a synopsis not a review. Hmmm... I realize that’s not what I really want to be doing. Maybe I should go read a movie review or two and then try this again. I’m also doing my tongue in cheek writing f and sort of playing this off like it’s a bad movie it isn’t.

There is good chemistry between Frieland and Anon judge by the conversations they have while sharing some coke. There passion when they move to the bedroom is believable. 

Overall it’s a good story. I kept sitting up and leaning in the coffee table which is what I do when the plot grips me. This is especially true when Anon starts to go mid-evil on Frieland’s ass bc she uncovered his true identity. It is truly amazing some of the fucked up shit you can out into someone’s head if have access to it. That was pretty bad ass even if they didn’t do enough of it, in my opine. The mystery continues to unfold over the course of the movie. I liked the ride and was on the edge of my seat for parts of it. Did I figure it out before the end I did. That’s why it’s a good mystery not a great one. 

I think the overall point of the movie is simply some people want to be anonymous and some people don’t. We all tend to think people who aren’t active on social media have something they aren’t saying or hiding. When the truth is they just don’t want you to see there lives. Me I’m an open book. I have nothing I hide. I lie to share what I’m doing with the world. It doesn’t make or break my day if people do or don’t like it, but if people care to know there it is. Anyway, good flick. Recommend the watch.

Rating: Good

Assessment: Watch it