Fake German heiress Anna “Delvey” Sorokin made headlines in 2018 after scamming banks, hotels and some of her closest friends out of about $275,000 to rise through the ranks of New York City’s social elites. In 2019, she was found guilty of theft of services and grand larceny. Two years later, in Feb. 2021, she was released from prison. Only a year after that, Netflix released a series based on her life titled “Inventing Anna.” The series stars Julia Garner (“Ozark”) as Anna Delvey and Anna Chlumsky (“Veep,” “My Girl”) as journalist Vivian Kent.
Instead of looking at Delvey’s lavish, made-up life chronologically, the show takes us through the perspective of Kent as she uncovers the truth about Delvey’s “real life” through interviews and extensive research for a profile piece in Manhattan Magazine. Kent is based on Jessica Pressler, a journalist for New York Magazine, who thrust Delvey into the spotlight after publishing the article “Maybe She Had So Much Money She Just Lost Track of It” in 2018.
At times, it feels like the show is really about Kent and not so much about Delvey, which is unfortunate considering Kent is an extremely unlikeable character in the series. Anna Chlumsky’s overacting and dramatic expressions are distracting, and the character of Kent herself is frustrating to watch as she starts to spiral in her search for the truth. It becomes clear that Kent is no reliable narrator as she becomes attached to Delvey on a personal level.
The audience is only privy to knowledge of Delvey’s life through the information obtained by Kent. The show switches between Kent interviewing Delvey, her friends and her colleagues to flashbacks that slowly piece together the reality of Delvey’s lies. The series loses its already unstable footing in its last two episodes as it moves beyond the publishing of Kent’s article and into Delvey’s trial.
Despite Delvey’s interesting life, the series was dragged out and overly theatrical. At times it was cringe-worthy enough that “Inventing Anna” felt like a Lifetime version of “American Crime Story” – it tried too hard but ultimately fell flat.
Bad acting and unnecessarily long episodes aside, “Inventing Anna” favored sensationalizing Delvey’s fraud and painting her as a victim instead of the criminal she is. Despite being horrible to her friends, her lawyer and Vivian Kent, the series wants the audience to sympathize with her. They paint her as this feminist martyr and immigrant heroine, as noted in the series “Trump’s America.” Painting Delvey, the criminal and mastermind scammer, as an immigrant that has fallen victim to the justice system and the gullible elite is a dangerous way to portray her that can leave a sour taste in any viewer’s mouth.
Is the show engaging? Of course. It’s hard not to be enthralled with the con artistry of Anna Delvey, but the show shouldn’t receive praise because of its subject when it lacks in quality everywhere else. Delvey’s story has been told before. While it’s entertaining to see her lies unfold, there are countless other avenues to read her story that make this version irrelevant. Save yourself the nine hours it would take to watch the series in full, and instead read Pressler’s New York Magazine article, or “As an Added Bonus, She Paid for Everything” from Delvey’s former friend, Rachel DeLoache Williams, in Vanity Fair.
Anna Delvey is fascinating, and her story is filled with twists and turns that not even her closest confidants could have foreseen. Unfortunately, “Inventing Anna” does not live up to the hype.
