Largely based on the New York magazine feature written by Jessica Pressler, Inventing Anna depicts the swindling days of the infamous scammer, Anna Delvey.
When the elusive Anna Delvey (Julia Garner) got arraigned in New York Supreme Court, she was not the grist for the gossip mill yet. Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsy) discovers Anna’s misconduct. Who was Anna? Her last name may be Sorokin or Delvey; no one knows. She is from Germany or Russia; no one knows. These smoke and mirror facts led to a can of worms that extends to nine episodes.
The Shonda Rhimes executive produced Inventing Anna showcases the story of a fake German heiress, Anna Sorokin. Julia Garner, the Ozark breakout star, portrays the role of Anna Delvey. Frankly, I found her impressive in Sorokin’s role. Rocking her pan-European accent (though less pleasant to hear) and thick-rimmed glasses, Garner was at her best.
The scammer went by the alias Anna Delvey. Delvey posed to be a socialite and infiltrated multiple elite circles of New York City. Over five years, Anna fleeced her wealthy acquaintances, banks, and hotels with meaningless promises to pay them back. The timeline of the opening scene is November 20, 2017, with the prosecutor declaring the indictment of Anna Delvey. Anna is a multifaceted person who lacks an emotional quotient.
Because her narrative was not a black-and-white approach, each victim rendered different viewpoints in every episode. Kent, the reporter, chases every little information to unfurl Anna’s true motive. But that quest remained incomplete in this nine-episode-packed drama. The back-and-forth of timeline explained how lavishly-living Anna got convicted for grand larceny and theft of services. However, the main question remains, was Anna always the brilliant con artist, or was she seasoned by society’s ills?
From the beginning, Anna is immovable about letting everyone know that she is not some “dumb, shallow, superficial” grifter to whom only money matters. She wanted to materialize her fantasy by building her empire. The show went to great lengths in arguing that Anna was, after all, an aspiring entrepreneur who could break the barrier of patriarchal energy and acquire success.
Delvey’s costumes are a significant part of her character arc.
To girl-boss her way through the Manhattan streets, Anna needed to sport refined clothing.
She enjoyed the Ibiza breeze in an Alexander Mcqueen dress, accompanied by a Dior handbag. When busy setting up Anna Delvey Foundation, the grand SoHo art club, Anna wore expensive coats from Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana and adorned herself with Tiffany rings and fierce sunglasses. Her grifting days arrived at the end when she tricked one of her friends into paying $60,000 for a Morocco trip. During those days, the faux heiress did not bother to wear the same black dress more than once.
Vivian and Anna’s dynamic exhibits a lukewarm illustration of the Hannibal-Will duo as the journalist slowly submerges into an obsession with her felon subject.
Vivian fits the show’s tagline perfectly – “This whole story is completely true, except the parts that are totally made up.” She is a fictitious substitute for Jessica Pressler, who established Anna’s story in real life. Given the amount of magnitude, Vivian has, the show strayed from the subject matter often. When everyone waved the scam saga off as a ‘dumb socialite’ thing, Kent remained sagacious. On one hand, the journalist turned the world upside down to expose Anna, on the other hand, defense lawyer Todd Spodek (Arian Moayed) kid-gloved the pretender during her mental breakdown session on-trial. Vivian and Todd found common ground as they both shared concerns over Anna. Amidst the tale of lies and deception, the journalist-lawyer banter provides a dash of comic relief.
The series tries to unearth Anna Delvey by offering a different point of view. Anna is an enigma which makes sense. Each person described her in a way as if they weren’t talking about a singular person. When a fantasist like Anna arrives new in town, she would be at her finest and brightest. But days before her doom, she was a completely different person. Anna’s business plan was in ruins due to the regulations of bank-loan acquisition. When she ran out of her fraudulently acquired money, Anna emotionally collapsed. The swindler became fragile and vulnerable as she got trapped inside her delusions.
The series loses substance as a result of backstory traffic. In terms of pace, the show seemed to drag before hitting the ninth episode.
However, indulgences such as exquisite art galleries, overpriced hotel rooms, and curated fashion make the show satisfying to watch. The drama itself tries to figure out the fusion- Anna Sorokin. Despite aggravating various interpretations, the show provided no substantial insight from Anna. Overall, with a remorseless and detached subject as the lead, Inventing Anna is a glossy and captivating case study; it is worth the binge.
