The film is based around the character Anna (Keira Knighly). She is married to Alexi (a quite unrecognisable Jude Law), a member of the Russian government, with whom she has a son. When she travels to Moscow in an attempt to get her brother's wife to stay with him after he has cheated on her, she happens to meet a young officer with whom an infatuation and romance grows. In the midst of a very conservative Russian aristocratic society, Anna's actions come with devastating consequences. (There are also some other little side stories but that is the general gist of it).
There have been a HEAP of adaptations of this book, including an adaptation with Vivien Leigh and another with Greta Garbo. There has been a Russian film (or two...) and even a musical version as well as a few TV movies and a few mini series'. So maybe adding another Anna Karenina to this long list was an interesting choice. Having not seen any of these other adaptations though, I don't mind.
This film looks great. It is really fascinating the way they have done it. It is really well directed, the music is awesome and fits in so well to what is happening on screen, the sets are glorious, the costumes are divine and the cinematography really highlights all of these things. There are some really beautiful, breath taking scenes. Quite frankly this film is unlike anything I have ever seen but I am by no means saying it's perfect. There are many things that do not fit quite right.
Also, at the start of the film the scenes change like they would on a stage with a backgrounds lifting up and another one being lowered down and the extras move props around and the way the film flowed was really awesome. But by the end of the film this had kind of dissipated. The film didn't flow as well and the setting were almost normal. I am sure you could read into it, figuratively speaking, that as Anna falls out of the public eye and into disgrace her life becomes less like a stage or something along those lines but not everyone wants a lesson in imagery and symbolism now that they have left school. (I love getting into the symbolic meanings in things. The IB program has ruined my sense of fun.)
Aaron Taylor-Johnson, while he does a fairly good job, seems miscast. For me, he seems too young and small for this part. Maybe his youth is part of the character, I am not sure, I have not read the book. But I didn't fully believe in the hardcore love and obsession that the two main characters had for each other. I just wasn't 100% convinced. But Keira Knightly still annoys me. There is just something about her face that I can't deal with. There were a few times in this movie where I was generally confused as to what emotion she was trying to portray but the director obviously likes her or you could say has some kind of obsession with her, as he has put her in his last three movies including when he miscast her as Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice. *small rant over*
Above everything else, this really is an intriguing film. I got sucked into this weird aristocratic world where the Russians are obsessed with everything French, with their strange values about marriage and relationships and their crushing, overbearing, judging society. This film brings up a lot of questions and if you like to analyse things to get to the ambiguous meanings of films then this one is a good one to do that with and if not, then it is still something that is worth seeing just to see how they have done it. That being said not everyone will like this film but if you have seen Django Unchained then you should go see this. If you haven't seen Django Unchained then go see that. NOW.
