Anna Karenina: Like Being Inside a Painting

My goodness gracious! What insanely creative gusto! This isn’t a movie, it’s literature painted as art, it’s theater concealed within the cinema: it’s the beating heart of an exceedingly passionate aristocratic woman, set on stage for all to feel it’s pounding fervor.

 Set in 19^th century Russia, this film follows married socialite Anna Karenina’s (Keira Knightley) beautiful love affair with Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). The brilliant pacing is intrinsically connected to Anna’s ardent emotions and as their love develops we feel her heart beating within ours. The movie explores mankind’s most profound feelings (lust, jealousy, love, forgiveness) and mercilessly transmits them to us.

There is much to praise in the director’s (Joe Wright) visual outlook of the original novel by Leo Tolstoy. What an adaptation he has created! Surely, one of the most imaginative things I have seen in quite a while. The movie’s magic takes place on a theater stage where all is aesthetically very glorious and pleasing. The characters eloquently interact with one another, be that through a classical Russian waltz or in bed, breaking rules and sacred marriage vows.

The editing, I suppose, also added wonders to the truly creative gusto of the film. I can’t even begin to describe how and why it’s so brilliantly cut. It works and that’s what counts! There are scenes of hardly any dialogue, and these are possibly the most effective of them all—definitely one of the trickier aspects of screenwriting. You feel totally enraptured by the beauty and originality of the scenes and their sequences. As a side note, I desperately needed to go to the bathroom throughout most of the movie but simply could not move from my seat. All in all, the visuals and silences simply kick the dialogue in the ass!

Okay, now that we’ve covered all the beautiful stuff, let’s get down to the dirty business. Unfortunately I did not read the novel so I cannot reeeeeeally compare and contrast here, but I must say that I have my suspicions as to whether or not it was a loyal adaptation. Much was left unanswered in my head in regards to essential character development and storyline. I was a bit confused as to the different relationships and parallel stories. Obviously it’s a huge book and a lot will be left out—a problem in many adaptations—but to me it felt like certain events towards the end of the movie came too fast and sudden. Such profound feelings and delicate thoughts should have been explored more thoroughly. Also, being a keen reader of Russian literature, I was a bit disappointed by the movie’s superficial treatment of the country’s cultural and social-political issues of the time. The story of the rich landowner Levin (Domhnall Gleeson) is a bit bland due to lack of background information.

But, for what it is—a visual work of art—I really did enjoy it. Joe Wright was definitely very bold with his take on the novel and I would watch it again…and again, and again…actually.