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| Keira Knightley |
Stars: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Johnson, Kelly Macdonald
Genre(s): Drama; Romance
Release Date: September 7, 2012
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%
Keira Knightley certainly has changed since her Oscar-nominated role in Pride and Prejudice, and in the past eight years she has starred in terrible movies, terrific movies, and everything in-between. She is still undeniably gorgeous and talented, yet perhaps her poised British grandeur has lost its effect. It is, therefore, not surprising that she was given the title role in Anna Karenina, her latest film with frequent collaborator, director Joe Weight; she has a knack for playing historical -- both true and fictionalized -- women from years past. As it turns out, that knack does nothing to elevate Wright's disappointing version of Tolstoy's classic romance novel.
Anna Karenina takes place during the 19th century, and Knightley plays a young mother who is married to a Russian aristocrat (Jude Law). She soon enters into a dangerous affair with the teenaged Count Vronsky (Aaron Johnson). If you have yet not read the novel -- and I can count myself as one of those people -- it is not difficult to guess early on that this will drastically alter Anna's life, and obviously not for the better. Oftentimes, when a massive novel such as Anna Karenina is adapted into a movie, many details from the book are omitted, and bits of the storyline feel rushed. I cannot accurately say whether this is true for Wright's film, though it is clear to me that part of the plot are not clear. Compressing a nearly 900-page novel into a two-hour movie is no easy feat, a feat that this latest version does not achieve.
The majority of the film takes place in a theatre, with the idea being that even seemingly intimate moments are, in essence, in front of an audience, and therefore those intimate moments are not truthfully secret or private. While I applaud Wright for his innovative ambitions, this set-up -- to be blunt -- did not work for me. It was not believable in the slightest. Tolstoy's novel had already been so severely compressed that the added constraint was unnecessary and, at times, distracting.
While Knightley's performance is at least acceptable -- and Law is actually quite exceptional -- I cannot say the same for Johnson, who has been horribly miscast, in my opinion. It it difficult to believe that Anna would be falling in love with his character, who is appealing only because he is dashing and wealthy. He is unlikable in many ways, and I would be lying if I said this was not Johnson's fault.
Anna Karenina has been nominated for four Oscars this year, and despite its flaws, technically it is flawless. The cinematography, production design, costumes, and original score are all stunning, and I would not be surprised if it won at least one of those. Yet, it is unfortunate that the rest of the film could not be as terrifically executed. Perhaps this was not the right time to remake the movie. Perhaps it should have been longer. Regardless of what it could have been, what it is, is disappointing.
Grade: C
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