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Review:

Anna Karenina (2012)

Score: 8/10

Director: Joe Wright

Stars: Alicia Vikander, Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Olivia Williams , Domhnall Gleeson, Cara Delevingne.

Synopsis: In late-19th-century Russian high society of St. Petersburg, Anna Karenina enters into an affair with the dashing young Count Alexei Vronsky.

Review: A betrothed young woman named Anna Karenina ( Keira Knightley ) sets her sights on Count Alexei Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson ). Together the two explore a new relationship all the while facing the moral panic of their society and the repercussions of their actions.

Alicia Vikander shows her dancing skills in this movie. She was a ballerina after all. She seems happiest when she plays in these films that take place in a classic time period. Again, we get to see that range of acting similar to the film The Danish Girl (2015) with Eddie Redmayne and The light Between Oceans (2016) with Michael Fassbender. Roles like this show us a deeper sense of her characters psychology. It’s good to see the diverse skill set she has. She can play an action heroine in the film Tomb Raider (2018), a dancer in this film, and a great actress as well. This film does not feature her as much as Keira Knightley but she does very well here. Her performance is much better here than her role in the movie The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015).

Keira Knightley is very good. She shines in these roles. Her acting talent is more suited towards theater than the more modern conventional roles of today. Keira Knightley is a very talented British actress. I would like to see her in more of these roles.

Domhnall Gleeson is well suited to this movie. When he is not yelling at the absolute top of his lungs like a mad man in the film Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) or faking a perfect American accent in the movie Ex Machina (2014), we get to see some very good acting range from him. His facial expressions and demeanor flow naturally with the rest of this film but the scenes he is in are more of a western wild man in a wooden cabin, yet his character behaves himself more like a gentleman. Interesting.

Jude Law’s character is very similar to Ralph Fiennes character Mr. Sors in the film Sunshine (1999). They seem like the same person, in the exact same predicament, with an extremely similar job involving Jewish emigrants. They even dress the same and have the same glasses. Yes they even speak the same.

Olivia Williams plays the classy Countess Vronsky. She knows how to play the classy, strong, and powerful higher up characters very well. Much like the character Adelle DeWitt in the FOX TV show Dollhouse, her character seems to have a very strong influence on the younger females in the media she plays in. Cara Delevingne hardly even said a word in this movie. Why would the creators of this film cast her in this movie knowing how well she does in film and yet they don’t even really give her any lines? She did perfectly fine in the movie The Face of an Angel (2018) with Kate Beckinsale. It just seems a bit strange for the creators of this film to do that. I absolutely love how this film is cast. The creators of this movie really know talent when they see it.

The film focuses on the concept of temptation and loyalty. Our main protagonist Anna Karenina is tempted into having an affair but you can imagine how well that will go in the early 1900s. Her loyalty is questioned when she makes some life changing choices that slowly destroy her life. For Domhnall Gleeson’s Levin, loyalty was more of a question of not giving up on the one he loves and listening to what Alicia Vikander’s character Kitty had to say. He talks to Kitty instead of forcing his ideas off on her. The celebrities really make this story work. Their ability to truly become someone else and allowing themselves to full become the character is what sells this story. If lesser actors and actresses where cast, this film would not have the potency it has.

The cinematography is perfect. The lighting, backgrounds, set dressing, wardrobe, and color are perfect. This is one of the best looking movies I have ever seen. The film is so beautiful that it is otherworldly. You get pulled into the look of the film so much that you don’t even care about the story. The movie just looks so amazing. I love the use of pans and one take shots from the director and the camera person. The way the film shifts into a fantasy scene and then back to reality is truly artistic. Given the fact that this film is about relationships and marriage, I can see how this film won’t appeal to everyone. This is by no means an action film, its more of a period piece. I think the film is worth looking at for film students who are looking for inspiration for backgrounds, set dressing, and wardrobe (sounds expensive though). At the very least this movie can be a study for camera work and cinematography in general. I recommend this film for those who are into period piece films. Some people complain about the transition from book to movie, I am not reading a book I am watching a movie. If I want to read a book, I’ll read the damn book. This movie is well above average.

More Period Piece Films.

Suffragette (2015)

The King’s Speech (2010)

Northanger Abbey (2007)

The Theory of Everything (2014)

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