Director: Joe Wright
I first met Anna Karenina about two years ago when I watched film by Bernard Rose with Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean in the leading roles. I fell in love with the story from the first sight. It was something romantically daring but, at the same time, sad and sentimental. Since then I have reached for the Leo Tolstoy's book from time to time but have not reached it yet. I do not know what is holding me back but I cannot pull myself together and finally read it. Maybe that is the reason why I was looking forward to the new cinematographic adaptation of Anna Karenina. I had to relive the story once again.
In the course of time, the plot obviously has not changed but the way how it is presented does have. No royal castles, estates but just a stage in an old theatre which transforms from a ballroom to a skating-rink in less than a minute. All the cream of society plays theatre because it is forbidden to reveal your true emotions. Anna did not obey this rule. She was fulfilled with passion, desire and happiness so much that she could not control herself. Anna finally had found a man who she loved and who loved her (but maybe it was just lust and desire?). Nothing could stop them except for the condemnation of the classies. That ruined everything Anna had ever believed in.
Frankly speaking, at the beginning of the film I was in complete perplexity because I could not understand why everything was happening in one place and therefore I was kinda bored but, as the story went by, I became more and more interested (I finally understood that this Anna Karenina is full of surprises and there were much more of those to come). Apparently, Joe Wright (Director of Pride and Prejudice) wanted us, spectators, to think outside the box, as there is a lot of subtext to comprehend.
I have to admit that this film really is a masterpiece - the costumes, make-up and the way how Joe manages to capture sunlight, mist and wind. And he did not forget about the Russian culture as well (songs, words, traditional food). Keira Knightley is fascinating, although I do not like that sometimes when she smiles, her eyes are almost closed but that is the matter of inheritance, not her acting skills. Let's not forget Jude Law as well. His character is not as notable as the one Aaron Taylor-Johnson (still not sure about him) portrays but the manner how Law plays his little scenes is outstanding. He does not do much but how he does...
Overall, I must say that at first I was not pleasantly surprised and did not think that "Anna Karenina" was something I would watch again and again or the film that deserves Oscars but... As I am thinking over and over again, Joe Wright's adaptation was not as bad as I considered initially. (I just was not well prepared but you are now.) Actually it is pretty sensational ( which else of the nominated films was discussed so much by the critics). Who cares that sometimes there was too much of directness in cases of intimacy. This is one of those films that can be watched on St. Valentine's day. Well maybe not so much for the Anna and Vronsky's lust, as for the pure love of Kitty and Levin.
