Anna to the Infinite Power

This movie (and its book counterpart) almost seems prophetic in this day and age. A story that came out in the early eighties, set in the late nineties; dealing human cloning and the moral, ethical, and philosophical consequences. The film itself is a bit poorly constructed (probably due to its shoe string budget) and the acting is thin and amateurish. However, its unusual story was quite unique for its day. Also I find it very fascinating that the world would be contemplating the same issues and at the time period as in this little movie. I say it worth seeing once. Even just to wonder about the possibilities and consequences of cloning.

The concept is interesting but the movie is let down in several ways. 1st the tension dissipates way early when the secret is revealed a long time before the mid point even. After that it's more TV family sitcom than anything. Some of the logic doesn't stand up to much of a look - the father seems to be talking about some other kid and not his own when the subject of Anna's strange ways is ever raised. The tension finally ratchets up in the last act but just when you think it's going to finish well it just kind of stops dead. Like that.

The cast is an interesting mix of faces from the period and before with a lot of them from daytime dramas. It was nice to see the beautiful Dina Merrill again as well as Jack Gilford - the 1st time for me to see him since the movie Cocoon. He was great as the Doc in Catch-22 and he was good as the doctor here too.

A small side note - this movie looks like it 'inspired' an episode of the brilliant and massive hit TV series the X Files. The XF ep is called 'Eve' and it looks like the writers Kenneth Biller & Chris Brancato 'loosely based' their story and script on Anna to the Infinite Power! To their credit they did a very good job and in many ways the X Files ep is actually better than this movie. It certainly has a _much_ more satisfying ending for 1 thing and the logic of the plot is solid. Ace show creator Chris Carter certainly knows how to get the best from his talented people.

I first saw this movie over 20 years ago. My memory was of the basic plot, but I had forgotten all the subtleties as well as the film's brilliance. I honestly can't think of a film that is as haunting and captivating as this wonderfully told tale. Martha Bryne puts in an all time great child actor performance and Donna Mitchell plays a great mentoring taskmaster. I can only imagine that the premise of this story while probably completely fiction would be well within the realm of possibility in the modern world. As scary as the film is, it gives great hope for the human spirit to overcome pre-disposition and also shows the importance of heart and feeling over mechanical perfection. I recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys thought provoking and well written movies.

I caught it last night, and was struck immediately by the very direct similarities between it and "Eve", a first-season X-Files episode, about (you guessed it) little girl clones who have many of the same problems as Anna, only they also kill people, and don't seem to have human emotions. And an older clone shows up to monitor the progress of her "sisters". And the evil scientist (played by Jack Gilford!) has a greenhouse almost identical to an evil Nazi scientist who appeared in a later X-Files episode. The plot points in common are too numerous to be coincidence, and I kind of gasped at the end when Anna says she's going to change her name to "Eve".

Obviously Chris Carter saw this movie, and passed the ideas on to the writers who did "Eve". It's an old pattern for him.

I just caught this on Showtime this morning as well. This movie redefines hiding from senior citizen nurses, as in it's never been less thrilling. Also, whats up with the rotary phone that looks exactly like a normal handheld touch-tone wall phone? This movie is so lousy i wouldn't even see the point in writing about it. But Showtime felt it was good enough yo air at least twice so i'm just balancing out the universe here.