Charlotte Rampling has been a grand dame of British cinema for so long, but often in minor roles, that it’s a relief to see her centre stage and commanding in this low-key 2012 thriller directed by her son, Barnaby Southcombe. In a classic noir set-up, Rampling attends a dating evening and takes a potential lover home, only to awaken to find him dead. Anna’s guilt or innocence is kept uncertain for much of the running time, with Gabriel Byrne as the sympathetic cop closing in and Haley Atwell as her daughter. I Anna is a deliberately old-fashioned thriller which manages to provide the requisite twists and turns without selling out the idea of the central character’s emotional vulnerability; it’s a rare thriller that deal with mental health issues is an intelligent and un-exploitative way.
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