Film Review - Anna Karenina (2012)

Anna Karenina (2012) was directed by Joe Wright, acclaimed director of Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007). With his third collaboration with Keira Knightley as lead actress, Joe Wright follows his recurring tendency of adapting literature classics onto screen. Tom Stoppard, playwright and adaptor of many literature classics (e.g. Shakespeare in Love, 1998; Parade’s End, 2012), wrote the screenplay based on Leo Tolstoy’s 1877 much loved novel Anna Karenina. It recalls the tragic love triangle of Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley), her highly-respected husband Karenin (Jude Law), and the dashing cavalier officer Count Wronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

The relationship between Anna and Karenin is distant, love seems absent from their marriage.  The story begins with Anna leaving St Petersburg to visit her brother Oblonsky (Matthew McFayden) with the plan to reconcile him with his wife, Dolly (Kelly Macdonald), after she had found out that he was cheating on her with the governess. Anna first meets Wronsky on her way to see her brother. Kitty (Alicia Vikander), Dolly’s sister, invites her to her birthday ball, expecting Wronsky to propose to her. Whilst there, Wronsky is captivated by Anna and they share a passionate dance (below clip), from this point, Wronsky tries everything he can to seduce her until she finally yields. In parallel, Levin (Domhnall Gleeson), a country landowner desires to marry Kitty, but is disappointed as she holds out for Wronsky, only to be embarrassed because of his infatuation for Anna. 

Knightley expertly portrays the complexity and ambiguity of Anna’s character, the viewer is not sure whether or not to empathise with her. She shows love, kindness, joy at the beginning before falling into darkness and melodrama as Anna is tortured with the dilemma she faces: either she stays and plays the enamoured wife and loving mother, or she gives in to the deepest desire to forget everyone and be with her lover.

The story asks important questions of morals (regarding adultery) and gender differences of the time: men being the sole breadwinner in any family could get away with unfaithfulness because his wife would not be able to provide for herself; women, on the other hand, most definitely could not get away with unfaithfulness and were ostracised by the rest of society.

Anna Karenina has been adapted many times and a new version of the story implied bringing something fresh and different from what has been done in the past. Joe Wright successfully did it by choosing to set the scene in and as a theatre, with a few exceptions, as a means to represent the superficiality of the Russian society at the time. This artistic decision is emphasised by an ever-shifting stage: it becomes a train station, an office, a horse race, Anna’s son room, among other ones. The film is also rhythmic; the choreographed and structured opening scenes of Oblonsky’s office and Anna reading a letter from him while dressing are like a dance.

Wright portrays a Russian society where there does not seem to be any respite from the public eye. Everything seems to be known and everybody is severely judged and avoided when they do anything contrary to the socially accepted norm (Anna becomes extremely isolated after leaving her husband). Wronsky and Anna first encounters happen in the eyes of everyone and gossip is surrounding them. Wright also uses upper backstage as a metaphor of “listening to the door” and gives a reminder of the theatre. 

Joe Wright makes good use of close-ups to show the emotions of the characters as well as emphasizing the focus on them. People stare at Anna as she makes reappearance in society (above clip). Wright captures Anna’s lies and despair by filming her through mirrors that reveal to the viewer how she really feels and how much different she is from the face that she puts on for society and her husband.

A powerful contribution to the film’s atmosphere is the soundtrack by Dario Marianelli (fourth collaboration) that reminds the viewer of a Russian ballet.

The main storyline, although enthralling, demonstrates the despair caused by lust. However, the film is not without hope. True love is characterized by the righteous Lenin and the more mature Kitty who fall in love and get married and hope is further empathised in the way that they reject society’s view of purity by caring for Lenin’s sick brother even though he is married to a prostitute (a women of high social standing could not be seen in the same room as a woman of disrepute).