"Anna Karenina" - movie review

Two out of five possible stubs.

Keira Knightly

Jude Law

Aaron Taylor-Johnson

 

 

 

          Are you wondering about the low ratings given by the ‘professional’ reviewers for this film? I was. Tolstoy’s powerful Russian saga about infidelity in 1874 has been told many times. How could it get messed up in the modernly styled adaptation with well-known and well-respected director, Joe Wright and screenplay by Tom Stoppard?

          It didn’t get messed up. The story was merely presented in a new format, and it’s a difficult format for me to describe here. Let’s say there’s someone in a bed, which is in the middle of a stage, and we’re in the audience. The camera moves in, the character gets up out of the bed and moves to the back of the stage which opens into a field in Russia. Or there’s a social gathering and one of the characters goes upstairs, which turns out to be the rafters of the theater. Or there is a train out in the snowy countryside, steam white against the freezing backdrop but as it gets closer a larger than life child appears just beyond it and the train is actually in the child’s playroom. I can see why this version is not getting great reviews.

          Anna Karenina, set sometimes in this production as a stage play, is distracting. Perhaps the producer thought we knew the story so well, a new component was needed to jazz it up. I didn’t need this component, but it didn’t ruin it for me either.

          I went to see Keira Knightly and the costumes, which I admit is truly a chick approach to movie viewing. And I was not disappointed. She is translucent, strong and defiant one minute and a victim of the circumstances of her poor choices the next. When she juts her chin in that aristocratic air that she does in all her period pieces we believe her. We believe she is so torn in love to do the unbelievable like desert her child to be with her lover. We believe she is utterly unable to do the ‘right’ thing. If she did the ‘right’ thing, of course, there’d be no novel that has stood the test of time for nearly 140 years when Tolstoy started writing it in 1873.

          Skilled film buffs are compiling verbose and complicated reasons for why this movie was made in this format. I’m not so concerned with the critical and psychological reasons, however, I’m sure it will be discussed in every film class that covers the period ad nauseam.

          I go to the movies to be entertained and I share my opinions here about whether they succeeded or not. My caveat, thus, is this:  If this is going to be your one and only exposure to Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, I’d not base the story on this style of presentation. It’s a love story, a story about love of spouse, illicit love for another, love for a child or lack thereof and self love, be it healthy or narcissistic.

          I thought it was just ok, but I’d wait for it to come out on DVD, even if you love Keira and costumes.