Review of Anna Karenina (2012) by Michael L — 29 Jun 2013

Produced for the screen multiple times, ANNA KARENINA goes for one more round at the bijou. This latest version is far more true to the original Tolstoy novel capturing the complexity and breadth of Imperial Russia.

Unfortunately, it all registers rather flat and the film never figures out what it wants to be. Working from a Tom Stoppard script, director Joe Wright takes an at times stylistic route reminiscent of Baz Luhrman, round the corner and he becomes Vincente Minnelli, and then he settles in to be just straight forward Joe Wright.

This hodge podge undermines the film and makes for a wildly disjointed work that wants to distance while making us cry. That requires Fassbinder-like talent which Wright simply does not possess. So ultimately the film becomes a big mess.

Keira Knightley as Anna is stunning in every scene but then she disappears to be replaced by over the top Matthew Macfadyen who seems to have popped in from MOULIN ROUGE. Sadly, in the key role of Vronsky we have Aa.

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