Anna Karenina - review.

Anna: The Musical... Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Keira Knightley as Count Vronsky and Anna Karenina.

The way, Joe Wright handles his adaption of Tolstoy's famous novel, is certainly unusual. The book, Anna Karenina is over eight hundred pages long with so much crammed in that it would be near impossible to cover everything. Wright uses a strange combination of the theatre and film, the opening ten minutes has theatrical set changes and sets the film up superbly. Keira Knightley is Anna, the wife of brisk government official, Alexei Karenin, played by Jude Law. Law constantly has the air of English vicar but his acting is brilliant. He soon goes onto to become the suffering husband of Karenina when she encounters the young and attractive Count Vronsky, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Anna and the Count become lovers and a difficult love triangle ensues. The background and costumes, almost every scene is gorgeous. Its a feast for your eyes with bright colours and expensive scenery. There is a sub-plot though and it has Domhnall Gleeson as Levin, a good-natured and honest man, who falls badly when knocked back at a marriage proposal to Kitty (Alicia Vikander). He is the parallel to Anna Karenina, a lying and deceitful woman who is unfaithful to her husband. It is confusing but bold, it doesn't quite settle in a filmgoers eyes but manages to keep the audience contained for its length.



3/5