¨Anna isn’t a
criminal, but she broke the rules! ¨
After the success
Joe Wright had last year with his thriller Hannah, he now returns to doing what
made him famous: adapting well known romantic period pieces. His collaboration
with Keira Knightley in Pride and Prejudice put him in the map. They teamed up
again for Atonement with equal success, and now they got together for the third
time for the adaptation of Leo Tolstoy´s famous novel. They say that the third
time is the charm, but I found this to be their weakest collaboration together despite
its four Oscar nominations (Cinematography, Costume Design, Original Score, and
Production Design). Wright has had success in the past with these period pieces
always receiving nominations for his work in the technical department. This film
is a triumph visually with a great production and costume design representing
19th century Imperialistic Russia. The performances are pretty much
alright but no one really stands out here. The film is shot in an experimental
way as the narrative seems to be taking place in a theater where actors come in
and out of different sets through the stage. It strikes you odd at first, but
later you get used to this approach which in a way works because the characters
in this story are viewed through a lens in society in a similar way as we view
actors performing plays on stage. It was an interesting and original way to
make the film in my opinion, but I don’t know if it worked for everyone. The
main issue I had with this film is that it was so focused on the beautiful
exterior designs that the narrative and characters seemed to lack depth and
humanity. Several issues were left out of Tolstoy´s novel, but it’s
understandable considering Wright put more emphasis on the relationships than on
socio-political ideologies.
The story is
set in Imperialistic Russia during the late 19th century focusing on
aristocratic families. Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley), an aristocrat who is married
to a senior government official named Alexei Karenin (Jude Law) who is twenty
years older than her, decides to travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow to visit
her brother, Stiva (Matthew MacFadyen) and convince his wife Dolly (Kelly
Macdonald) to forgive him for being unfaithful to her in order to calm the
turmoil that his affair stirred up in Moscow society. Stiva is a womanizer, but
Anna convinces Dolly to forgive him and stay with him. Dolly´s beautiful sister,
Princess Kitty (Alicia Vikander), invites Anna to a ball where she expects Vronsky
(Aaron Johnson), a cavalry officer to propose to her. In the meantime a childhood
friend of Stiva´s, Levin (Domhnall Gleeson) a passionate but shy landowner who
lives in the country, has come to propose to Kitty as well. Kitty is in love
with Vronsky so she politely refuses to marry Levin and he returns to the
countryside. During the ball, Vronsky and Anna seem to instantly feel attracted
towards each other and Vronsky completely ignores Kitty by choosing Anna as his
dance partner instead of her. This is when Kitty realizes that Vronsky has
never been in love with her, and Anna having such a strong attraction for
Vronsky decides to return home to her husband and son before more damage is
done. This is just the beginning for Anna´s moral troubles as, Vronsky takes
the same train back to Petersburg and confesses his love to her. The two soon
share a passionate affair, which Russian society will not forgive.
It must be
hard to adapt what is considered to be one of the best novels of all time into
a screenplay; and that difficult task was left to Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in
Love). I think that several elements from the novel didn’t translate very well,
especially if the viewer wasn’t familiar with the novel. However the story is
still so rich and powerful that the film works, although the characters don’t have
enough depth as in the novel. Despite the difficulty in adapting the novel I
feel the movie did succeed in some ways and makes this film worth the watch. Fans
of period pieces will be delighted with the exquisite attention to the costume
and production designs. They will also fall for this love affair, a story that
has transcended time and space. Despite living in a very different society now,
I feel that through paparazzi and gossip magazines we still kind of remain obsessed
and judgmental towards Hollywood stars private lives in a similar way as
ancient societies gossiped about aristocratic life. I do have to admit that as
beautiful as the film might look, it does feel like it is missing a beat to it
and will leave you a bit indifferent towards the end.
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