.As a fan of the 2016 Broadway musical (based on the successful animated film), I was aware of the many changes from fact to fiction, and this TV version of the life of Anna Anderson (Amy Irving) makes those changes perfectly clear. It presents Anna as a very troubled young woman, perhaps insane, coming to be obsessed with the fact that she's the supposedly murdered princess, seen being killed along with her family (Omar Sharif and Claire Bloom as Nicholas and Alexandra) thirty minutes into the nearly three and a half hour two part movie. It's then that Irving appears at a mental institution, perhaps mistakenly identified as the princess by a fellow patient, and indicating that she has her memories.
Along her journey, Irving only encounters a few of the Russian imperial family, being accepted by a few, but rejected by most. Rex Harrison. Edward Fox and Susan Lucci are among them, but it's the approval of dowager empress Olivia de Haviland that she needs to be fully accepted. They never meet, only in Anna's mind, and only Lucci and Nicholas Surovy (reunited from "All My Children") seem to believe her, with Lucci being far too gullible in her acceptance. Compared to the fictional story, the real one It's quite depressing, but then again, realism compared to fantasy usually is. Watchable but not as fun as the fabled version, yet perhaps necessary so the historical fact can be dramatized, and thus much history remains a mystery, hence the title.
Along her journey, Irving only encounters a few of the Russian imperial family, being accepted by a few, but rejected by most. Rex Harrison. Edward Fox and Susan Lucci are among them, but it's the approval of dowager empress Olivia de Haviland that she needs to be fully accepted. They never meet, only in Anna's mind, and only Lucci and Nicholas Surovy (reunited from "All My Children") seem to believe her, with Lucci being far too gullible in her acceptance. Compared to the fictional story, the real one It's quite depressing, but then again, realism compared to fantasy usually is. Watchable but not as fun as the fabled version, yet perhaps necessary so the historical fact can be dramatized, and thus much history remains a mystery, hence the title.