- Film Review
- Reviewed By Stella Papamichael
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2 out of 5
After directing Keira Knightley in Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, Joe Wright casts her in this left-field adaptation of Tolstoy's epic novel. Knightley does a commendable job of softening the hard edges of the imprudent Russian ingénue married off at 18 to Jude Law's older statesman. She risks her position in 19th-century society and - more controversially - her relationship with their young son to indulge in an affair with the wilful Count Vronsky (a typically moody Aaron Taylor-Johnson). And yet she's upstaged by her director, who draws attention to himself with every frame. There were incongruous camera moves in Pride & Prejudice and flashes of surrealism in Atonement, but Wright lays it on thick here, turning this tragedy into a lavish musical - just without the song and dance numbers. Clearly, the artifice is a symbol for the hypocrisy of the upper classes, but it also trivialises the suffering of Karenina in her attempts to overcome it. The end result is a beautiful bore.
Plot Summary
The wife of a government official travels to Moscow to save her brother's marriage. Her journey leads to an encounter with a married cavalry officer, with whom she is instantly smitten, and when he follows her home, a passionate affair develops that scandalises the town and drives her husband to desperate ends. Period drama based on Leo Tolstoy's novel, starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Anna Karenina
- Keira Knightley
- Karenin
- Jude Law
- Vronsky
- Aaron Johnson
- Dolly
- Kelly Macdonald
- Oblonsky
- Matthew Macfadyen
- Levin
- Domhnall Gleeson
- Princess Betsy Tverskoy
- Ruth Wilson
- Kitty
- Alicia Vikander
- Countess Vronsky
- Olivia Williams
- Countess Lydia Ivanova
- Emily Watson
- Princess Myagkaya
- Michelle Dockery
- Baroness
- Holliday Grainger
Crew
- Director
- Joe Wright
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