Review of Anna Karenina (2012) by Jillian L — 21 Oct 2013

For starters, I never read the book. Ok, I started the book, never finished it. So honestly, what drew me to this was pretty much just the names attached. But once I started watching, the real draw is Joe Wright's concept, which he executed amazingly.

The whole movie takes place on a stage. But not just on the stage, but under it, above it, in the house, in the lobby, everywhere imaginable. It's brilliant. The way everything (the set, actors, etc.

) moves seamlessly from one place to another is choreographed beautifully. (Also loved the choreography in the ball scene) The whole thing itself had the feel of a ballet. But what was also interesting is how as the movie progressed, it became less and less obviously theatrical.

It still was, but you almost forgot about it at times. A few of us talked about if it was intentional, and what it meant. One of the downfalls is the story though for me. It took a lot to keep up with it normally, and with this at times I would be too busy watching the spectacle, and then play catch up on the story.

Also, we paused it a few times to figure out who was related to who, who was in love with who, etc. While I did appreciate Tom Stoppard's attempts to streamline the plot, and I did love his beautiful one liner quotes throughout the movie, the plot itself was still a little confusing.

It also does lag a little in the second hour, and the ending felt like it was rushing a bit to tie up all of the plotlines. As for the acting, I loved it. Matthew Macfayden and Domhnall Gleeson both played characters that are different than their usuals, and I thought they were great.

But, it really belonged to Keira Knightley, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Jude Law. I thought the three of them were brilliant. They played the characters in such a way that at times I felt bad for them, other times I sympathized, times I thought they were being stupid, and rooted for them other times.

I mean, basically they were playing human beings. Overall, I have a lot of feelings about this. (As you can tell), but most of them are positive, and I think this is definitely worth watching.