Review: 'Anna Karenina'

BY MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
Friday, November 30, 2012
11/30/12 at 4:35 AM

I can sympathize with filmmaker Joe Wright at wanting to do something different with "Anna Karenina," thinking that movies based on Leo Tolstoy's book have been filmed so many times - 17 in the last century, not including TV versions - that there's little reason to stage it unless you have a novel idea.

But this? Staging the film inside a theater, with footlights visible for deathbed scenes and curtains rising and falling on outdoor scenes?

Allowing Keira Knightley to make more ostentatious costume changes than Cher performing in concert with Beyonce, and then allowing her to look like the most stunningly beautiful, but gravely ill, woman since "Love Story" made Ali MacGraw look glowing?

By overstuffing every room with grandiose pieces of furniture? Furniture that appears to come from an episode of "Antiques Roadshow: Russia," wedged in with a few pieces that have a modern look, as if Pottery Barn of Russia approved the product placement.

Tolstoy's novel may be dense, but its tale of a married princess who falls in love with a cavalry officer in 1874 Imperial Russia has never been quite the colossal bore that is this film adaptation.

"Anna Karenina" reunites director Wright with Knightley, his leading lady in the Oscar-nominated dramas "Pride and Prejudice" and "Atonement," and their third effort holds none of the charm of those works.

The theater-staging decision was a risk worth taking. Although the introductory tour is a bit jarring, there seems to be some potential as Wright veers from Tom Stoppard's script to show backstage sniping and cast changes; props galore and large frames for paintings, but minus the canvas; false facades and background scenery; and stunning views from the balcony at a ballroom set below.

But the film is wildly disjointed in both its storytelling and its tone, with multiple subplots becoming messy as Knightley wraps herself in furs and pearls and more suds than a soap opera.

Knightley is the princess, Anna, who is married to an older man (Jude Law). She is the picture of common sense in the film's opening minutes, before she sees rich, dashing cavalryman Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and goes all goo-goo.

This is played against the story of Anna's brother, Oblonsky, played by Matthew Macfadyen as if he's in a musical, or a vaudeville show, or both. I almost expected him to twirl his mustache for effect.

Then there's the melodrama of Oblonsky's niece, Kitty, and her being courted by the agrarian-minded Levin, with these two acting as if they were filming "Dr. Zhivago," with a more reserved manner than the emoting that Anna delivers.

This subplot that frames something closer to the lifestyle of Russian peasants more concisely follows the book - and it's the only part of the film that I had any investment in from an emotional standpoint - but it is so detached from the overwrought rest of the story that it seems odd by its inclusion.

So much of the picture is overwrought, and yet I could hardly keep from snickering at the appearance of Taylor-Johnson in his white buttoned-up military garb, with his fluffy hair and matching blond mustache.

I don't know if it was intentional that he be made up to look like Gene Wilder in the comedy classic "Young Frankenstein," but I often thought that the young actor might break into "Puttin' on the Ritz" in that get-up.

His Vronsky is shown to be the archetype of a Russian stud (with a gorgeous, matching white horse, no less), and when he and Anna exchange glances of sexual heat at the train station, played against the chug-chug motion going back and forth, I couldn't stifle my clucking as symbolism became hilarity.

The filmmaker did not set out to poke fun at "Anna Karenina," but his attempt to pay homage went from serious to silly. This is as much a misstep from a cinematic point of view as Anna's adulterous decisions were in Russian society's view.

‘ANNA KARENINA’

Cast: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen, Kelly Macdonald

Theaters: AMC Southroads 20

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Rated: R (some sexuality, violence)

Quality:

(on a scale of zero to four stars)
Original Print Headline: A novel idea

Michael Smith 918-581-8479
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com

Associated Images:

Keira Knightley plays Anna, and Jude Law (left) plays Karenin in director Joe Wright’s take on “Anna Karenina,” which is wildly disjointed in both its storytelling and its tone. Focus Features/Courtesy

Keira Knightley undergoes numerous costume changes in her titular role in “Anna Karenina,” directed by Joe Wright. Focus Features/Courtesy

Aaron Taylor-Johnson portrays Vronsky, the archetype of a Russian stud, in "Anna Karenina." Focus Features/Courtesy