Review of Anna Karenina (2012) by Stephen N — 22 May 2013

...should have known better. Ok, a story where adultery is everywhere and praised...knowing this, why did I want to see it? Curiosity. One, it had Kierra Knightly. Two, it was a classic novel being made into a movie.

Three, I had seen an older version and wanted to see how they re-made it. Not what I expected. For starters, had NO idea of the rating before spending the $1.30 to get it from redbox. Next, had no idea the interpretation (specifically the set and scenery) would be so lose.

Yes, the idea of doing it in a russian theater house was an inventive one...IF it was actually done in a real theater, not in a movie format. You can do so much with film these days and the story was sacrificed for their 'artistic' choices.

For me at least, it was distracting and you got lost very easily with time and place. Note to the director: something like that can be pulled off with the help of someone like Baz Luhrman (director of Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet, and the new film The Great Gatsby) on your side, but for you, my dear Joe Wright, stick to more acurate portrayals like your Pride and Prejudice, please.

You'd do much better. Another thing was, with it being rated R (which let me re-iterate, I was not aware of), the sexual scenes were blown out to the enth degree, making it again hard for me to concentrate (granted, not Kierra Knightly's worst love scene, but still not something I want to see).

With that said, Kierra Knightly still did well playing what she was supposed to (a bit choppy, but that's more of the fault of the director) and Jude Law (though you couldn't even recognize him), gave a performance that definately is far from his norm and did amazingly well.

My advice: do not see this movie. Even if you are a fan of the story, you will walk away sorely disappointed. Save yourself the heartbreak (and the money) and rent something else.