“Anna
Karenina”
Is a Flawed
Beauty
Reviewed by
Shirrel Rhoades
Ever college
student knows of “Anna Karenina,” that great Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy, even
if they haven’t actually read it. It begins, “Happy families are all alike;
every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
The 8-part
novel’s epigraph is a quote from the Bible: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.”
The theme is that no one can build their own happiness on another’s pain.
Time Magazine
declared it the “greatest novel
ever written.” As did William Faulkner.
There have been
more than a dozen movie versions, starring everyone from Greta Garbo to Vivien
Leigh to Sophie Marceau. Most film buff’s are familiar with Greta Garbo’s
classic 1935 rendition – and maybe have heard of the 1927 version also starring
Garbo.
Now we have a
new rendition starring Keira Knightley.
As directed by
Joe Wright, this British production sticks fairly close to Tolstoy’s story –
with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard.
Set in 19th century Tsarist Russia’s
high-society, the storyline examines many aspects of love, from the passion
(and guilt) between adulterers to a mother’s bond with her children.
As in the book,
Anna Karenina questions her own happiness while change comes to her family and
friends.
Yes, like the
book, it has a tragic ending.
Keira Knightley
calls it “definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
She describes
the film as “looking at the human condition as a whole. And that’s going from
the best of humanity to the worst of humanity often in one character.”
Director Joe
Wright was challenged in another way – making this film different than those
that had come before. “It
just got to a point where I was walking around stately homes in England and I
had people saying to me, ‘Well we’ve made three Keira Knightley films here
before,’ and in Russia we had people saying, ‘Oh yes, we’ve made seven Anna
Kareninas here before,’ and I was going, ‘Oh god, why am I doing this, it is so
depressing.’”
The resulting
film he likened to “jumping off a cliff.”
Some scenes
depict the anti-heroine standing on a stage as her marriage and social status
disintegrates. The cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg
are rendered as elaborate stage sets.
“I’m glad how
daring Joe has been,” says Knightley, “and I’m glad I jumped off the cliff with
him.” However, she admits that “the style will not work for everyone.”
The critics seem
to agree. Variety called it technically “glorious,” but “unmistakably chilly”
in the storytelling. Digital Spy criticized the narrative momentum, saying the
movie chose “a glossy look over probing insights into a complicated character.”
“Anna Karenina”
is currently showing at the Tropic Cinema.
It’s director
Joe wright’s third film with Keira Knightley. Jane Austen’s “Pride and
Prejudice” and Ian McEwan’s “Atonement” might be seen as failures, what one
critic described as “trapped in literariness.”
“Anna Karenina”
is more like a form of theater. Yet the highly mobile camera doesn’t allow it
to look stagy.
Two-time Academy
Award nominee Jude Law, who plays Anna’s husband, calls Stoppard’s script
“remarkable.” He adds, “The piece looks at different angles of love and
relationships, honestly and openly and without judgment. There is such an
elegance to the way Tom writes dialogue. It’s masterful…”
Aaron
Taylor-Johnson, with curly blond hair and soulful eyes, is the young cavalry
officer who leads Anna astray. “That’s what this film is,” he says, “how far
you go for love.”
Knightley
observes, “Anna is a great and fallible character, one who speaks to what makes
us human; in her, you see the flaws, the heroics, and the terrifying emotions.
You care about her, and can’t help but recognize yourself.”
srhoades@aol.com
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