A BOLD, evocative and stimulating theatrical — in many senses of the word — version of Leo Tolstoy’s much filmed novel, Joe Wright’s vision of this obsessive love story set against the opulent backdrop of high society in imperial Russia in the 1870s will challenge audience expectations while also thrill those willing to go along with the swirling cinematic style.
“Anna Karenina” also features a captivating performance by Keira Knightley in the title role. A lyrical and elegant production, the clever staging brings the best out of Tom Stoppard’s intelligent, amusing and complex script, and while the structure and affectations may not appeal to purists it allows Wright to tell an epic love story in a lush and sumptuous manner.
It is the third time Knightley and Wright have worked together — she also starred in his films “Pride & Prejudice” and “Atonement” — and he clearly brings out the best in her. Knightley is an actress who divides opinion, but there is no denying the camera loves her face and in period frocks there in no one to beat her. Her Anna Karenina is impressive here — strikingly beautiful when filmed in a veil looking longingly at a young man who captures her heart, but also driven by a fierce logic and intelligence that makes her want to strive for the love she thinks she deserves even though deep down she knows she can never survive the harsh glare of society.
Beautiful Karenina is married to staid but loyal Karenin (a buttoned-up Jude Law, whose solidity is the perfect balance to Karenina’s wilfulness), a high-ranking government official, and they have a young son and a strong social standing in St. Petersburg. Called to Moscow by her errant brother Oblonsky (a terrific performance by Matthew Macfadyen, offering genial comedy to the role), whose philandering ways have finally caused havoc in his marriage to Dolly (Kelly Macdonald), and he hopes Karenina can try and ease the problems between them.
On the train to Moscow, Karenina meets Countess Vronsky (Olivia Williams) who is met at the station by her son, dashing cavalry officer Count Vronsky (played with youthful enthusiasm by a blonde-haired moustache-twirling Aaron Taylor-Johnson). When they are introduced there is an instant attraction between Vronsky and her.
Also visiting the Oblonsky household is his best friend Levin (Domhnall Gleeson), a sensitive — and therefore heavily bearded and with long, lank hair — landowner who plans to ask Dolly’s sister Kitty (Alicia Vikander) to marry him. But she is entranced by Vronsky, who leaves her heartbroken at a lavish ball when he pursues Karenina. Levin leaves from his Pokrovskoe estate, determined to work the land and forget Kitty.
Karenina returns to St. Petersburg, but Vronsky follows her with the two eventually embarking on a passionate affair that scandalizes St. Petersburg society and finally places Karenin in a position where he must give his wife an ultimatum…to put the affair aside and return to him and their son, or to lose her place in society. While Karenina thinks she can have everything — a love affair, her place in society and her son — but there are terrible consequences to her obsessive romance.
Forsaking traditional sets and locations, for much of the film the story is set within a massive and rather rambling theater — there are scenes that emphasize the expanse of Russia, particularly when the film focuses on Levin’s farm — with scenes set on the stage itself as well as in the lower levels, elevated rigging, mirrored galleries and against painted backdrops.
And for much of the first half of the film Wright keeps things moving with a real sense of energy, to the degree that it is only when Karenina returns to St. Petersburg that the rhythm settles to a more modest pace. Particularly striking early in the film is the opulent ball where Vronsky and Karenina first dance, with original and rather erotic (though never overt) choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui helping give the film a mesmerizing quality.
Beautifully shot by Seamus McGarvey and with elegant production design by Sarah Greenwood, “Anna Karenina” is likely to divide opinion — in a similar way Keira Knightley seems to divide audiences — but while the story is a familiar one the new production at very least offers a bold, stirring and at times entrancing version.
The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen.
(SD-Agencies)
