Anna Karenina (2012) [Blu-ray]
Drama

Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley, Academy Award nominee Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson dazzle in this stunning new vision of Leo Tolstoy's epic love story. At the twilight of an empire, Anna Karenina (Knightley), the beautiful high-ranking wife of one of imperial Russia's most esteemed men (Law), has it all. But when she meets the dashing cavalry officer Vronsky (Taylor-Johnson), there is a mutual spark of instant attraction that cannot be ignored. She's immediately swept up in a passionate affair that will shock a nation and change the lives of everyone around her. From acclaimed director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) and Academy Award-winning writer Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) comes this visually enchanting masterpiece hailed by critics as "ecstatic" (Time), "rapturous" (MSN Movies) and "a spectacle that has to be seen to be believed!" (The Huffington Post)

Storyline: In 1874, in the Imperial Russia, the aristocratic Anna Karenina travels from Saint Petersburg to Moscow to save the marriage of her brother Prince Oblonsky, who had had a love affair with his housemaid. Anna Karenina has a cold marriage with her husband, Count Alexei Karenin, and they have a son. Anna meets the cavalry officer Count Vronsky at the train station and they feel attracted by each other. Soon she learns that Vronsky will propose Kitty, who is the younger sister of her sister-in-law Dolly. Anna satisfactorily resolves the infidelity case of her brother and Kitty invites her to stay for the ball. However, Anna Karenina and Vronsky dance in the ball, calling the attention of the conservative society. Soon they have a love affair that will lead Anna Karenina to a tragic fate. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on February 14, 2013 -- Director Joe Wright's Anna Karenina is a gorgeous film, and the Academy agrees. Four coveted nominations -- Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Original Score -- have gone to lovely little Anna, and numerous other award circuit nominations and wins only affirm its beauty. Alas, as the old adage goes, beauty is only skin deep. Note the various nominations Ms. Karenina didn't receive: Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, or a single actor nod. For all its grace and elegance, for all its grand gestures and tales of dangerous or unrequited love, Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Tolstoy's 19th century novel ultimately reveals itself a hollow, emotionally distant affair that never quite stirs the heart.

Imperial Russia, 1874. Wealthy aristocrat Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley) lives a posh, sheltered life in St. Petersburg with her older husband, senior statesman Alexi Karenin (Jude Law), and their son, Serozha (Oskar McNamara). Having traveled to Moscow to counsel her sister Dolly (Kelly Macdonald), who recently caught her husband, Prince Stiva (Matthew Macfadyen), in the throes of an extramarital affair, Anna has a chance encounter with a young calvary officer, Count Alexi Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The two soon fall madly in love and begin meeting each other in secret, until deepening feelings and a pregnancy make it increasingly difficult for Anna to hide her affections. Parallel to the story of Anna and Vronsky is another tale of love and heartache; that of Stiva's dear friend, Kostya Levin (Domhnall Gleeson), and a young woman named Katerina (Alicia Vikander) who, to Kostya's utter dismay, rejects his proposal in the hope that Count Vronsky will ask her for her hand in marriage. As the months pass, Anna begins losing everything she holds dear, Vronsky struggles to keep her trust, Kostya languishes in despair and Katerina risks letting the one man who truly loves her slip through her fingers.

The 19th century Russian stage set by Wright and production designers Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer is wondrous. The film's primary set -- an enormous old theater -- is in a constant state of flux; walls and room fixtures slide into place, backdrops shift in and out of view, and extras dismantle and reassemble entire locations. Wright isn't bound to the stage, occasionally venturing outdoors or using limited locations to his advantage, and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey and editor Melanie Ann Oliver favor fluid camerawork and fanciful transitions to long, stately takes or quick, dutiful cuts. The film unfolds like a dance, the actors nimbly gliding from street corner to grand ballroom to horse race to sitting room and back again while the filmmakers adhere to the same disarming choreography as the performers. It helps, of course, that the various micro-sets and Jacqueline Durran's BAFTA Award-winning costume design are so magnificent and magnificently captured on screen. Rather than anchor Greenwood and Durran to a single period, Wright gives the designers much more leeway, bridging eras and striking out and away from the restrictions a more dutiful adaptation would require. And yet it isn't distracting in the slightest, remaining as subtle and seamless in the end as it is in the beginning.

Problems arise, though. For all the pomp and pageantry, Wright's filmmaking freedom imprisons Tolstoy's text. "The theater is really a metaphor for Russian aristocratic society at the time," the director briefly explains in his commentary. "And also for the roles that we all play in life." But beyond such obvious, surface-level symbolism, his grand theater (however stunning), shifting sets (however impressive) and period playfulness (however intriguing) shed very little light on the original novel and inadvertently impose modern whimsy and ironic impulse on a literary masterwork that doesn't benefit from either. Tolstoy's "Karenina" is 19th century realist fiction at its finest, and Wright's melodramatic stage-scape seems at odds with the betrayals, jealousies, conflict, social consequences and period commentary to which Tolstoy's characters are subjected. Stranger still, there are scenes in which Wright entertains style over substance to wholly unnecessary and fruitless ends (Stiva's bookkeepers leave their desks and nearly waltz into a neighboring musical at one point), while other scenes find Wright passing up perfect opportunities to indulge in visual flourishes (Anna's mounting paranoia and irrationality for example). Here he withdraws and simplifies, settling for realism over theatricality. There's no consistent rhyme or reason, other than director's prerogative.


The actors seem lost at times too. Knightley, Taylor-Johnson, Gleeson and Vikander give their all, and then some, but Wright rewards their passion with superficial motivations and receding character arcs. Knightley grows more and more unlikable as Anna, even though we're meant to fall in love with her through her trials and tragedy. Taylor-Johnson grows more palatable, but only insofar as the story dictates. Gleeson aims for meek but lands on weak. And Vikander is sweet but slight, underutilized as she is. Only Macfadyen (a whirring dervish of charisma and good humor), Law (whose desperate cuckold is far more sympathetic than foolish) and Olivia Williams (as Vronsky's proper but promiscuous mother) stand out, and even then in supporting roles to the two central love stories at play. All of which begs the question: is Anna Karenina worthy of attention? With only the smallest of reservations, I can safely say yes. As a visual spectacle, it's breathtaking. As a fairly faithful yet unorthodox adaptation of Tolstoy's novel, it's certainly interesting and gets quite a bit right. And as a cinematic experience, it will give filmfans plenty to talk about. But as an experiment, it fails. Unlike Wright's Hanna, there isn't enough going on beneath the surface of the spectacle. As a film, it's uneven and all at once unsatisfying. And as an awards nominee, it's been rightfully nominated for its design and rightfully ignored for its flaws. In the end, it isn't an outright failure by any means. It just could have been a much more unified, heartwrenching and definitive success.

Anna Karenina is a flawed but striking adaptation of Tolstoy's sweeping novel of the same name. Though deserving of any praise directed at its cinematography, production design and costumes, the film's fundamentals -- storytelling, performances and internal cohesion -- are lacking in many ways and prevent Wright's theatrical take on the already melodramatic material from resonating. Universal's Blu-ray release is much better thankfully, with a wonderful AV presentation and a solid selection of informative extras, all of which only helps showcase the film's strengths and make Wright's efforts and experiments, successful or no, that much easier to appreciate.

[CSW] -2.4- I am sorry to say I did not like this nearly as much as I was hoping. Keira Knightley is fine as Anna, and when she is allowed to be the focal point of the drama, it came to life although I could never forgot for a second that she was Keira. I cannot say the same for the rest of the cast - Vronsky (the officer) is a callow and shallow pretty boy, thus really not a very compelling object for Anna's obsession. Jude Law (the husband) is a bit wooden as was most of the rest and don't make much of an impression (possible exception is Matthew Macfayden (the brother of Anna). What really limits the impact of the drama is the really odd direction, which treats the story as if it were a staged play or even musical comedy (but without much music). While this is certainly a different approach, it really gets in the way of rather than enhances the narrative. The costumes are magnificent, but that's not why I watch a movie. Keira is Keira - she's a good actress and even though she portrayed Anna with real emotion it wasn't enough to save this film for me. The one standout was Alice Vikander (Kitty) - a truly wonderful performance and the one character that actually grew and developed/matured as the story progressed. If the rest of the characters had developed at all, I could have really liked this movie.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box 8+/10.


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