Anna Karinina

[deliasherman]

As you know, dears, I don't go to the movies much.  It's not that I don't like them, it's just that I like other things better, and (despite a game effort) it's not feasible to live all possible lives at the same time.  Still, we occasionally indulge when it looks as if a movie's going to be significantly better on a large screen than a small one

Comments

[mizkit]

Ah! I am glad you liked it more than I did. I *loved* the staging, the outrageous costuming, all of that, absolutely loved it, and I thought Jude Law was mind-bogglingly good as the husband. But I felt no chemistry at all between Anna and Veronsky, which sort of blew that storyline for me. :)

[deliasherman]

I can see how that would be. I thought they had chemistry, especially in the country scenes. Perhaps I was just giving them the benefit of the doubt. Or assuming that it's there because I consider Keira Knightley ontologically chemistry-free. Doesn't matter, though. Jude Law was AWESOME.

[mizkit]

The *real* reason their chemistry failed for me, I suspect, is because the dance scene? Was filmed exactly the same way in (the same director's) Pride & Prejudice, also starring Kiera Knightly. I mean, there wasn't the jealousy/breaking heart thing going on in P&P, but the other dancers fading away? Exactly what he did in P&P. And while I thought it was wonderfully effective in P&P, I was like, "...really? He's doing it again? *Seriously*?" in AK, and so all the emotional charge that was supposed to bring just fell absolutely, utterly flat for me.

Disappointing, because I liked *so much* about the film, and I would have loved to have been swept away by the romance too.

I might buy it anyway, just to watch Jude Law's heart break whenever I like. ;)

[gaedhal]

Yes, it's beautiful, but any version of "Karenina" where virtually everyone
fees sorry for Karenin so much more than Anna is a major failure of
focus!

[kateelliott]

[joecoustic]

I haven't seen a new movie for a while but since I just read the book last year, this may be one I need to see. Thanks for the review! :)

[lareinenoire]

As I think I may have mentioned on Facebook, I'd been ambivalent about the film primarily because of Knightley (who I liked in Atonement, but hated in Pride & Prejudice) but also because I'd heard mixed reviews of the meta-theatrical elements (This was the first one I read, if you're curious). The concept fascinates me, I love Stoppard, and I thought the trailer, of all things, was positively gorgeous. The only sour note for me was Vronsky, who I did not find even remotely appealing, but I'm glad to hear you didn't find him problematic and you've made me really curious to see it.

Have you seen the 1998 version of Anna Karenina, out of curiosity? Sean Bean has ruined me for every other Vronsky, and if you want period-accurate costumes, St. Petersburg locations, and a backdrop of Sir Georg Solti and the London Symphony playing more Tchaikovsky than you can shake a stick at, I highly recommend it. It's flawed, yes, and the Levin storyline gets shortchanged, but I really like it as an adaptation.

[deliasherman]

Well, it's a question of taste, isn't it? Alexandra Coghian hated the meta-theatrics; I loved them. She hated Vronsky. I wasn't enthralled with him either (far, far too pretty for words), but I believed that Anna was hot for him, and that he loved Anna, and that's the point of the romance, right?

See, this is why I hate prescriptive reviews, that privilege the reviewer's taste above all things. Just because I don't like something, I don't think that makes it Bad Art. Ok, I do, but am chary about saying so in public. Because several books I think are unconvincing, thin, badly written, and pointless are wildly popular, well-beloved, and even seriously written about by academics. These books don't speak to me. They do speak to those who love them, and that's wonderful.

This Anna Karenina spoke to me. It may or may not speak to you. But I genuinely think it's a serious enough effort at putting some of what Tolstoy was trying to say in the novel (no film could do justice to its full compexity) to make up your own mind about.