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.

If you like "As The World Turns" you will like this movie which stars the actress who plays Lilly Walsh. In this movie she is still a child actress but demonstrates that she is a fine actress. The movie is about an experiment dealing with the cloning of a girl. There are a large number of her.

I think directing was poor, acting severely lacking. But the story premise was 20 years ahead of it's time. A clone movie dealing with a girl as the heroine, the contextual elements of parentage and coming of age. The bones are there to be a good movie, and scifi that when it was released nothing near it for at least a decade though some argue about the ethics and scientific merit of much of this, it's still about as topical today? I really would like this re-made and I think it would do well.

Despite being filmed on a small budget, "Anna to the Infinite Power" is a wonder. Produced, written and performed by a talented cast of newcomers and veteran actors attracted to the story of a young girl, a genius, who has to face the truth of her origins and forge her own identity and place in the world. A terrific and timely film, made with both love and insight.

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.