"Anna Karenina" - directed by Joe Wright
I vaguely remember seeing a BBC tv version of Tolstoy's classic novel when I was a kid.
The only part I can clearly recall is how it ends so going into this one I was hoping that there was enough to enjoy along the way that knowing the climax wouldn't matter.
After the crushingly boring chore that "Les Miserables" was there was some reluctance to check another gloomy period drama out but the power of Keira and the fact that I really liked what director Joe Wright did with the excellent "Pride and Prejudice" got me into a seat.
There was a bit of Les Mis Deja Vu as this film began.
I started to feel a sinking feeling early on.
It's the style that Wright elects to use in presenting the tale of the doomed Russian Aristocrat that caught me off guard.
When I say that everything is theatrically staged I mean it literally.
Beginning with a zoom onto a stage with a curtain announcing the title we follow the key characters as if they are either taking part in a stage play or preparing to be in one.
Matthew Macfadyen's Stiva Oblonsky is shaved in grand theatre style with two swishes of an exaggerated straight razor.
His reaction is total theatricality with his overblown expressions of concern and then relief.
Background scenery has visible joins and will occasionally roll away to make way for a different backdrop.
There is no attempt to hide the fact that a model train that is supposed to become a real train with Anna on it is still in fact a model.
It's an odd start but I am always fascinated to see how Wright will open a film so I tried to give the benefit of the doubt.
He has pulled off some amazing shots in his films- often at the start.
The long take opening of "Pride and Prejudice" is a fine example but perhaps the best is a similar shot taken to the extreme in the beach scene in "Atonement".
I didn't like his staging decision at all in "Anna Karenina" for a good twenty minutes then it miraculously won me over.
The ball scene in which Anna and Vronsky first dance has other parties around them freeze, re-start and at one point completely disappear.
It's highly effective- not just visually but in the sense that it forces the attention even more on Anna and Vronsky.
It risks overpowering the story but it gets away with it.
The style settled itself in my mind and once I was used to it I liked it very much.
It isn't overused and there are many genuine exterior shots that look incredible also.
Clearly it is a stylistic decision rather than one of cost cutting.
Another area where pennies have clearly not been pinched is costuming.
I would suggest that this film is now the frontrunner for the costume Oscar this year.
As usual it is the women that get the bulk of the attention and as you would expect Anna herself benefits most from some stunning costume design.
Visual appeal is one thing - entertainment quite another.
For the most part I was completely invested in the events portrayed with only a slight weariness kicking in towards the final quarter.
Keira Knightley cops a lot of negativity that I feel she mostly doesn't deserve.
A lot is directed at her very slim frame and I would count this more as jealousy than genuine criticism.
She is a talented actress who has shown a willingness to stretch herself with diverse roles.
Maybe they don't always work but mostly she is quite excellent even if the films occasionally aren't.
However this kind of material is what she is known for and she can do it in her sleep so it is no surprise that she is very, very good as Anna.
Wright allows the camera to linger on the exquisitely lovely Knightley from all angles making use of her expressive, fascinating face in particular.
Her characters journey from wife to lover and into madness is nicely charted in a movie with a relatively short running time for such a vastly rich narrative.
She is unsurprisingly very strong in the role.
What did surprise me was how effective Aaron Taylor-Johnson is in the role of Anna's lover Count Vronsky.
Not that I don't rate him as an actor- more that it felt like miscasting to put the baby faced Taylor-Johnson in the part of a high ranking cavalry officer.
He does look the part- dashing and confident without arrogance.
There is a nice chemistry between he and Knightley.
The scenes before they finally give in to their mutual attraction are loaded with sexual tension and both actors make it work.
Jude Law is an actor I more often than not do not like at all but I admit he is very good as the jilted husband Alexei Karenin.
Alexei is a great character who bears a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of the unfolding drama.
I don't know that the makeup and hair entirely convince in making him look like he is twenty years Anna's senior but Law is very good delivering lines such as 'I thank god the curse of love is lifted from me'.
I'll credit this to screenwriter Tom Stoppard- I think that it is his rather than Tolstoy's.
Special mention deserves to go to Domhnall Gleeson as Levin.
Gleeson was just one of the many excellent parts of the superb "Dredd" last year and he again does a terrific job as the thoughtful lovelorn landowner.
This character is a little shortchanged by the film version but what he is given he throws himself into with great skill.
His scenes with Swedish actress Alicia Vikander as object of his desire Kitty are some of the best in the movie.
Olivia Williams, Emily Watson and Matthew Macfadyen are nice additions with Macfadyen getting a bunch of nice lines.
Ultimately this is a very good version of the classic Russian novel with more than a unique visual twist to separate it from the many excellent previous stage, tv and big screen adaptations.
It isn't the best version that I have seen but it is a fine one.
Oddly I felt that an extra 20 or 30 minutes would have served it better in wrapping things up for characters other than Anna.
We needed a bit more of what became of Vronsky and more of the personal journey that Levin went o could have been squeezed in.
That last part in particular is the most interesting aspect of the story for me.
Still- this is a very good movie that I enjoyed immensley.
Oscar wise the costume award might be all that it walks away with but that reflects more on the incredible quality of the nominees this year than any weakness in this film.
The only part I can clearly recall is how it ends so going into this one I was hoping that there was enough to enjoy along the way that knowing the climax wouldn't matter.
After the crushingly boring chore that "Les Miserables" was there was some reluctance to check another gloomy period drama out but the power of Keira and the fact that I really liked what director Joe Wright did with the excellent "Pride and Prejudice" got me into a seat.
There was a bit of Les Mis Deja Vu as this film began.
I started to feel a sinking feeling early on.
It's the style that Wright elects to use in presenting the tale of the doomed Russian Aristocrat that caught me off guard.
When I say that everything is theatrically staged I mean it literally.
Beginning with a zoom onto a stage with a curtain announcing the title we follow the key characters as if they are either taking part in a stage play or preparing to be in one.
Matthew Macfadyen's Stiva Oblonsky is shaved in grand theatre style with two swishes of an exaggerated straight razor.
His reaction is total theatricality with his overblown expressions of concern and then relief.
Background scenery has visible joins and will occasionally roll away to make way for a different backdrop.
There is no attempt to hide the fact that a model train that is supposed to become a real train with Anna on it is still in fact a model.
It's an odd start but I am always fascinated to see how Wright will open a film so I tried to give the benefit of the doubt.
He has pulled off some amazing shots in his films- often at the start.
The long take opening of "Pride and Prejudice" is a fine example but perhaps the best is a similar shot taken to the extreme in the beach scene in "Atonement".
I didn't like his staging decision at all in "Anna Karenina" for a good twenty minutes then it miraculously won me over.
The ball scene in which Anna and Vronsky first dance has other parties around them freeze, re-start and at one point completely disappear.
It's highly effective- not just visually but in the sense that it forces the attention even more on Anna and Vronsky.
It risks overpowering the story but it gets away with it.
It isn't overused and there are many genuine exterior shots that look incredible also.
Clearly it is a stylistic decision rather than one of cost cutting.
Another area where pennies have clearly not been pinched is costuming.
I would suggest that this film is now the frontrunner for the costume Oscar this year.
As usual it is the women that get the bulk of the attention and as you would expect Anna herself benefits most from some stunning costume design.
Visual appeal is one thing - entertainment quite another.
For the most part I was completely invested in the events portrayed with only a slight weariness kicking in towards the final quarter.
Keira Knightley cops a lot of negativity that I feel she mostly doesn't deserve.
A lot is directed at her very slim frame and I would count this more as jealousy than genuine criticism.
She is a talented actress who has shown a willingness to stretch herself with diverse roles.
Maybe they don't always work but mostly she is quite excellent even if the films occasionally aren't.
However this kind of material is what she is known for and she can do it in her sleep so it is no surprise that she is very, very good as Anna.
Wright allows the camera to linger on the exquisitely lovely Knightley from all angles making use of her expressive, fascinating face in particular.
Her characters journey from wife to lover and into madness is nicely charted in a movie with a relatively short running time for such a vastly rich narrative.
She is unsurprisingly very strong in the role.
 |
| Jude Law as Alexei Karenin and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Vronsky |
Not that I don't rate him as an actor- more that it felt like miscasting to put the baby faced Taylor-Johnson in the part of a high ranking cavalry officer.
He does look the part- dashing and confident without arrogance.
There is a nice chemistry between he and Knightley.
The scenes before they finally give in to their mutual attraction are loaded with sexual tension and both actors make it work.
Jude Law is an actor I more often than not do not like at all but I admit he is very good as the jilted husband Alexei Karenin.
Alexei is a great character who bears a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of the unfolding drama.
I don't know that the makeup and hair entirely convince in making him look like he is twenty years Anna's senior but Law is very good delivering lines such as 'I thank god the curse of love is lifted from me'.
I'll credit this to screenwriter Tom Stoppard- I think that it is his rather than Tolstoy's.
Special mention deserves to go to Domhnall Gleeson as Levin.
Gleeson was just one of the many excellent parts of the superb "Dredd" last year and he again does a terrific job as the thoughtful lovelorn landowner.
 |
| Domhnall Gleeson as Levin |
His scenes with Swedish actress Alicia Vikander as object of his desire Kitty are some of the best in the movie.
Olivia Williams, Emily Watson and Matthew Macfadyen are nice additions with Macfadyen getting a bunch of nice lines.
Ultimately this is a very good version of the classic Russian novel with more than a unique visual twist to separate it from the many excellent previous stage, tv and big screen adaptations.
It isn't the best version that I have seen but it is a fine one.
Oddly I felt that an extra 20 or 30 minutes would have served it better in wrapping things up for characters other than Anna.
We needed a bit more of what became of Vronsky and more of the personal journey that Levin went o could have been squeezed in.
That last part in particular is the most interesting aspect of the story for me.
Still- this is a very good movie that I enjoyed immensley.
Oscar wise the costume award might be all that it walks away with but that reflects more on the incredible quality of the nominees this year than any weakness in this film.
| Rated | M for sex scenes |
| Running Time: | 130 minutes (2hrs, 2mins without end credits) |
| Starring: |
| Keira Knightley | --- Anna Karenina |
| Jude Law | --- Karenin |
| Aaron Taylor-Johnson | --- Vronsky |
| Kelly McDonald | --- Dolly |
| Matthew Macfadyen | --- Oblonsky |
| Olivia Williams | --- Countess Vronsky |
| Domhnall Gleeson | --- Levin |
| Theo Morrissey | --- Grisha Oblonsky |
| Cecily Morrissey | --- Lili Oblonsky |
| Alicia Vikander | --- Kitty |
| Luke Newberry | --- Vasily Lukich |
| Eric MacLennan | --- Matvey |
| Octavia Morrissey | --- Tanya Oblonsky |
| Beatrice Morrissey | --- Vasya Oblonsky |
| Emily Watson | --- Countess Lydia Ivanova |
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