ANNA KARENINA (MOVIE) - Review by Joe Calleri.

What – ANNA KARENINA (MOVIE)

Where – CINEMA NOVA, CARLTON, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.

When – FRIDAY 08 FEBRUARY 2013

Reviewer - Joe Calleri
Stars – 3 AND A HALF

Full Disclosure - I attended a Universal Pictures media screening of this movie.

This is, apparently, the thirteenth time that, Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel of tragic, forbidden love, Anna Karenina, has been adapted for either the film or television screen. On this occasion, US playwright, Tom Stoppard, has written the screenplay, with Brit Joe Wright, taking the directorial helm.

And, what a beautifully stylish, elegant movie they have created, capably aided by Wright’s extraordinarily creatively gifted technical team and long-time collaborators, including: costume designer, Jacqueline Durran; production designer, Sarah Greenwood; cinematographer, Seamus McGarvey, editor Melanie Ann Oliver, and choreographer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

Durran, Greenwood and McGarvey, have, quite rightly, received 2013 Oscar nominations for their work on the film.

The movie opens in 1874, in a rather quaint, dilapidated theatre, in Imperial Russia. Sarah Greenwood’s wonderful theatre is the key set piece to this film, almost developing its own personality as it magically morphs in front of our eyes into elegant ball rooms, bustling race tracks, and icy cold railway stations. You may forget the rest of this film, but, not that theatre set!

It you are not familiar with Tolstoy’s story, here’s a brief synopsis: dull, dour aristocrat, Alexei Karenin (Jude Law), is married to the beautiful, flighty, Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley), who falls in love with the much younger, dashing, rakish, blonde hair, blue eyed, Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Their forbidden love affair – which becomes the focus for the easily scandalised Russian upper classes - sets off a tragic set of circumstances, which leads to Anna’s banishment from her husband and young family, and her eventual suicide under the wheels of a steam engine.

My main criticism with this film rests with Wright’s decision to create such a visually slick, elaborately surrealistic world, which ultimately impacts negatively on our ability to sufficiently engage with the film’s characters, who at times become little more than beautiful looking human mannequins – especially Knightley and Taylor-Johnson - whom Wright skilfully shifts from one impressive looking set to the next.

So, if you are willing to sacrifice style over substance, you will enjoy the incredible visual beauty of Anna Karenina.