If you've recently watched the Tinder Swindler on Netflix, you're likely to be receptive to watching this con tale with one of our Ozark queens as its star. Ruth Langmore(played by Julia Garner from Ozark) finally has a brave place as Anna Delvey, the mastermind con artist who scammed her way in Manhattan's high society through charm, a fast thinking brain and of course knowledge of how much people are captivated by the bling.
As I watched Anna Delvey which is based on a true story, I couldn't help feeling impressed, inspired and shocked at the same time. Since I also watched the Tinder Swindler, I had enough material to compare. Inventing Anna is thankfully a limited series, so you can definitely binge watch this over the weekend or whenever. Back to comparisons. I've seen enough how wealth generates more wealth or at least a trust that there is some wealth to back that appearance . If you hire, or in the context of this series, if you 'steal' a private jet to put up a front that you can actually afford that lifestyle, you will definitely win your way into certain circles just like that.
Dressing the part, looking the part and talking in a condescending and rude enough way was all in Anna's bag of tricks as she tried her best to get a $25 million loan to start her Anna Delvey foundation where she imagined she would be at the pinnacle of art, a gatekeeper and the name you'd want to drop to anyone who meant anything in highly pretentious circles. Claiming to be the heiress of a rich Russian father who would only let her inherit 60 million euros when she turned 30, she was able to convince the best of the best which included architects, lawyers, gallerists to vouch for her and further name drop her in this pyramid scheme she birthed.
Unfortunately for Anna, she doesn't succeed for too long but not after swindling over $200,000 from the people in her life. You see, with Anna, wire transfers just never go through, her cards never work when it's time to pay for a lavish dinner she throws with friends, an expensive vacation or hotels. It is usually at such times, that there is some tension with her fictitious dad or the issues with wire transfers due to being in a foreign country. Anna is able though to gain enough trust(I really don't know how seeing how rude she is) from the people around her that they pay and make excuses for her even when their lives are falling apart on her account.
There was never a time I felt sorry for the people duped by Anna, least of all by her friend Rachel who actually was the one who tipped the police which led to Anna's arrest. There was never a time where Anna was there emotionally for any friend, so the fact that their friendship was only sustained because they got to experience so much fancy living which they had to pay for themselves made me think they deserved every mishap their way. If you can't see a con after so many lessons, you really deserve to learn resilience by digging your way out of it. Thankfully, Rachel did.
I was confused about Journalist Vivian's need to want to see Anna not go to prison. I understood her need to use Anna's story to redeem herself and her career which at this time was almost in a bin due to a previous journalistic error, but the fact that she personally felt invested enough to want to paint Anna as someone who was helpless or hadn't been raised right made me scoff. Yes, I sometimes stan the bad guys in films and want the best for them but that's only when I see some good nature in them. Some redeemable quality you can't deny. There was none of that here with Anna. She was an opportunistic fraudster at every turn, so as far as I am concerned any one showing her any sort of allegiance was experiencing some kind of Stockholm syndrome. She really brought out the worst in people. Cue; that disturbing exchange of words between her and her lawyer Spodek as he begged her to wear the clothes they'd brought. Yea, this fame hungry con artist would not wear prison clothes to stand in court.
I found a lot of the things they talked about in this series repetitive to be honest and the only reason I could stand it for that long was because I was painting in the background and well I was already in the middle of it and too invested to not follow through to at know what the end would be.
With all this said, I can't deny that Julia Garner is a phenomenal actress. I think my real displeasure is just the idea of the Anna who could get away with so much swindling and the motivations of the people around her for wanting to be in her circle. Apart from this, the cast played their roles amazingly well and I will graciously rate this an 8/10.
Feel free to share your thoughts if you've watched this yet.