With numerous
adaptations of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina already dotting the
cinematic timeline, director Joe Wright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard
can at least be considered justified in wanting to stir the pot with
this newest rendition of the titular adulteress' tragic fall from
grace. Yet in attempting to strip the romance down to its emotional
essence, their bold experiment misses the mark; a dazzling yet
seemingly arbitrary exercise in stylization.
In 1870s tzarist
Russia, Anna (Keira Knightley) is afforded all the luxuries and
status that her marriage to Alexei Karenin (Jude Law) allows. That
means lavish balls, dinners, theatre outings, the works. But when her
eye catches the dashing regiment officer Count Vronsky (Aaron
Taylor-Johnson), her hidden desires prove too tempting to ignore. We
watch as she destroys herself for forbidden love, spiraling from
envied socialite to reviled pariah.
