Review of Anna Karenina (2012) by Filipeneto — 22 Jan 2020

Sometimes it shows quality but it didn't convince me.

"Anna Karenina" is one of the classics of Russian literature. Written by Tolstoi, it is a truly colossal book, with long descriptions and that details the mood of the characters. It is a very rich and complex book, with intense dialogues and moments when the characters debate the state of the empire, moments where the author, apart from the story he wrote, inserted a hint of social and political criticism. Thus, it is a difficult book to transpose to the cinema. Something is always lost. It's not even worth comparing because we already know that.

In this film, the forbidden and sweeping romance of Anna, a woman trapped in a routine and conventional marriage, and Vronsky, the military officer who wants to live life as if each day were the last, has been fully transposed onto a stage, as if all life and the entire Russian court society were a gigantic theater stage where everyone plays a role. The metaphor is not irrelevant. In this film, the importance of the social role of each person stands out. For people like Anna or her husband, the opinion of others counts and affects the way they play their role on the stage of Russian society. Ana, Vronsky, Minister Alexei, each of them is just as or more concerned with the social implications of what is happening than with the events themselves.

Despite this, and although the film respects the essentials of the original book, it is quite weak. Joe Wright looks like a weak director, who takes a sugary romance, sweetens it even more and puts the audience to sleep by telling it ... very ... slowly ... and without any noticeable emotion. To make matters worse, he was so excited to make a stylish movie, with those theatrical artifices, visual effects and camera angles thought out of the box that he neglected everything else. The film is very slow without any reason, the story has no depth and is told almost in a gossipy tone and certain scenes are so stylized that part of their meaning is lost. For example, the ball scene at the Scherbatsky house, where we don't see Anna excited about the success she makes in her social debut in Moscow, and where Kitty's anger is justified by Vronsky's attitudes without taking into account the fact that the young woman , on her social debut, she was being virtually overshadowed by another woman, older, more experienced and already married!

It remains for me to speak of the actors. If on the one hand I really liked the performance of Jude Law, who gave us a very dignified, impassive and serious Minister Alexei, and the work of Matthew Macfadyen (who played Anna's brother, Stiva) and Domhnall Gleeson, who gave life to a rude but rich and important Kostia Levin. Aaron Taylor-Johnson never convinced me how Vronsky and Keira Knightley just don't have any chemistry with him.

Technically, the film is quite interesting. The special effects, visual and sound are very good, the green screen and CGI were used and abused, there are some moments of greater tension, but are accidentally attenuated by the soundtrack, which has quality but is sometimes too much loud and shrill. A word yet, for the excellent quality of the costumes and sets of this film.