Anora
Early on in watching Anora, I had the idea that this was a remake of Pretty Woman with a lot more skin than my grandmother would’ve appreciated. But the film then moved far away from a romantic comedy when the friends of the Russian billionaire’s son, Ivan, who plays the Richard Gere character in this film, learn about rumors that Ivan has tied the knot with a hooker. What a shame on the family! Apparently, the billionaire’s parents have given an associate in New York the task of keeping the spoiled son out of trouble.
The film has three parts. The first one takes an attractive, American hooker and a charming young Russian billionaire and seemingly makes them fall in love with each other, although that is not what both of them had planned. In the second part, the adult supervision of Ivan is trying to make this love undone, and the third part I’m not revealing here because I don’t want to spoil your movie-watching experience.
In the middle part, I grew somewhat agitated and was not sure whether I wanted to finish the film because it started to depress me. But when you see the end of this remarkable film, you understand why these uneasy emotions prepared you to appreciate the amazing ending.
I watched this film because it won this year’s Oscar, and for me, it is always fun to assess whether I agree with the votes of the Academy of Motion Pictures. I certainly did not agree when they gave many Oscars to James Cameron’s expensive, technology-driven film about the sinking of the Titanic. Anora has no technical shenanigans; in fact, the budget for this film is tiny compared to the hundreds of millions that went into making Titanic and other big special effects films. This film draws its power from portraying small gestures, reflecting human emotions with such precision that you are left stunned by the end.