Anna Karenina (2012); romance drama film review

Poster artwork for the romance drama film Anna Karenina.

Russian Romance by Linh

Another collaboration between director/writer Joe Wright and actor Keira Knightley is the lavishly filmed adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic book Anna Karenina. The costume romance drama has been adapted for the stage and screen numerous times before, but Wright has added a few different dimensions to his film adaptation. Wright has encompassed all the visual artforms into his film – painting, theatre, film and dance - including brilliant emotive music by composer Dario Marianelli to accompany the most dramatic or tragic scenes. Wright was inspired by Orlando Figes’s book Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History Of Russia and envisions Anna Karenina as a society of performers and performances in Imperial Russia of the mid-nineteenth century, so he has set the film primarily on a purpose-built theatre stage but also extends it to outdoor locations in natural environments.

Knightley has previously worked with Wright for the films Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, and Wright obviously brings out the best performance emotionally and physically from her. This is one of Knightley’s best dramatic performances for film but she has unfortunately missed out on an Academy Award nomination.

MISERABLE MARRIAGE: Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley) is miserable in a marriage of duty to Alexei Karenin (Jude Law) instead of marrying for love in the film Anna Karenina. Image: Universal Pictures, Focus Features.

The film follows the book quite faithfully, but anything that has nothing to do with romantic love is excluded from the film. Most of the film depicts different aspects of love such as love of Russia, love for family and love for God, whereas themes of agriculture and Russian politics are kept to a bare minimum.

The film begins just as the book does, in depicting the Oblonsky family in Moscow being torn apart by Stiva Oblonsky’s (Matthew Macfadyen) adultery with the family’s governess, and his wife Dolly (Kelly MacDonald) threatens to leave him. Stiva’s younger sister Anna (Knightley), married to Alexei Karenin (Jude Law), returns to Moscow from St. Petersburg to mediate and helps Dolly reconcile with Stiva. On her way to Moscow, Anna meets Alexei Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) at the train station and is moved by his generosity after a train crushes and kills a railworker on the train tracks. Meanwhile, Dolly’s younger sister Kitty (Alicia Vikander) has turned eighteen and is pursued by Vronsky and Konstantin Levin (Domhnall Gleeson). Kitty turns down Levin in favour of Vronsky but soon after, Vronsky and Anna fall in love with each other. Their adultery becomes the talk of Russian aristocratic society and has far-reaching effects on Anna’s family, her marriage and her life.

ARISTOCRATIC ACQUAINTANCE: Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley) meets Countess Vronsky (Olivia Williams) on her way to Moscow in the film Anna Karenina. Image: Universal Pictures, Focus Features.

The most enthralling aspect of this film are the visual elements where all the visual artforms intertwine and complement each other, fitting together seamlessly as one scene moves/changes to another. Wright effectively uses the stagecraft called “blocking” to ensure all the characters in the scene are not blocked or obscured by other characters in the same scene. The film’s mise-en-scène is exquisite with the staging very impressive in every scene.

STRAYING SUITOR: Alexei Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) dances with Kitty (Alicia Vikander) but directs his attention towards Anna in the film Anna Karenina. Image: Universal Pictures, Focus Features.

There are smooth transitions from one visual artform to another; for example, some scenes show Dolly and her children playing on the stage but then move to a scene that is framed like a painting, or the scene where Anna comforts her son while he’s sleeping in bed. These bring to mind many of the famous mother and child/children paintings from artists like Renoir, Monet and Picasso. A beautiful scene that incorporates dance, music and theatre is at the ball where Anna dances with Vronsky for the first time; when all the other dancers freeze still like statues, and only continue moving after Anna and Vronsky have danced past them.

RUSSIAN RIDER: Alexei Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) prepares for the horse race with his favourite horse Frou Frou in the film Anna Karenina. Image: Universal Pictures, Focus Features.

The film also depicts some of the themes involving social changes and the individual struggle to appease society while being true to oneself or being authentic. For example, the scene where Levin turns his back and walks away from the indoors stage and into a natural environment showing a wide open landscape covered in snow, or the start of the horse race moving from the stage (indoors) to an outside location then back again on the stage where Vronsky’s horse, Frou Frou, falls and is shot dead. The inside and outside depictions of these performances may be metaphoric on how every individual must perform privately (indoors) and publicly (outdoors) in Russian society. 

Also important are how others see you or think of you when you perform or how you behave in public. In the film, Levin is seeking to be authentic but Anna’s adultery and free-spirited attitude is her way of being authentic. However, Anna’s authenticity causes her to be spurned and scorned by Russian society, whereas Levin’s search of authenticity is rewarded with enlightenment and a happy marriage to Kitty. A double standard relating to gender also applies to adultery, where Stiva’s numerous infidelities are easily and quickly forgiven but Anna’s affair with Vronsky brings disgrace and social ostracisation upon herself.

LASTING LOVE: Konstantin Levin (Domhnall Gleeson) finds love and meaning in his life when he marries Kitty (Alicia Vikander) in the film Anna Karenina. Image: Universal Pictures, Focus Features.

Anna Karenina is a visual splendour on a grand cinematic scale, in similar ways an opera is musically magnificent. All the cast’s performances are excellent; the production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer have deservedly earned Oscar nominations for their amazing props, and production set designs. The film's costume designer Jacqueline Durran won an Academy Award and a BAFTA award for Best Costume Design.

Director: Joe Wright

Writers: Tom Stoppard (screenplay), Leo Tolstoy (book)

Cast: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alicia Vikander, Kelly MacDonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Domhnall Gleeson, Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Holliday Grainger, Michelle Dockery, David Wilmot, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Ruth Wilson, Oskar McNamara, Alexandra Roach, Pip Torrens, Luke Newberry, Guro Nagelhus Schia

Producers: Liza Chasin, Paul Webster, Tim Bevan, Alexandra Ferguson, Alexander Dostal

Original Music Composer: Dario Marianelli

Cinematographer: Seamus McGarvey

Film Editor: Melanie Oliver

Production: Sarah Greenwood (Production Designer), Niall Moroney, Thomas Brown, Tom Still, Nick Gottschalk (Art Directors), Katie Spencer (Set Decorator)

Costume Designer: Jacqueline Durran

Running Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes