The many artifices employed in this version of Tolstoy's great novel, beginning with the opening presentation of the story as a theatrical event, are not only unusual, they are also off-putting for many film goers. In my opinion, they have been used to intensify the action and the emotion at critical points. Anna Karenina defies condensation and previous versions have fallen far short of conveying the overpowering emotion at the heart of the love affair between Anna and Count Vronsky or Anna's tormented decision to abandon her son or her humiliation at the hands of her social circle. This version succeeds on all these counts, I believe. There is, for example, a stop action dancing scene which captures as no other film has done the intoxication that Anna is experiencing during her first real encounter with Vronsky and another scene when they first consummate their love during which the camera whirls around their bodies without fully displaying their nakedness. The passion is unmistakable, more so than if the act of intercourse had been more realistically shown. Maybe I'm prejudiced because I believe Keira Knightley is the most beautiful woman on the planet but I think she is the perfect Anna and a much better actress than most critics say she is. This is the third of her performances with the same director -- Pride & Prejudice and Atonement are the others -- for which I would have given her an Oscar. And both Tom Stoppard who wrote the script and Joe Wright, Knightley's director, have served the story exceedingly well. Three other major achievements: (i) Jude Law makes a very convincing Karenin, establishing the man's stiff moralistic nature and his wounded pride as well as his generosity when he is willing to forgive Anna although she has betrayed him. (2) Count Vronsky is portrayed, as he should be -- a beautiful but shallow lover, unable in the end to sustain Anna emotionally when she finds that she is a social pariah. (3) The important parallel love story between the idealistic Levin and young Kitty, with whom he is obsessed -- as pure as the love between Anna and Vronsky is corrupt -- is beautifully depicted, though perhaps at lesser length than it deserves. I know I'm bucking the trend, but I consider this Anna to be a major achievement and the artificiality in much of the film works for me.
Review of Anna Karenina
