Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina (2012)

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R - 129 min - Drama - 7 September 2012
Big Blue Sky Rating : 6.6/10

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Director : Joe Wright
Writers : Tom Stoppard, Leo Tolstoy
Stars : Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen

In 1874, in the Imperial Russia, the aristocratic Anna Karenina travels from Saint Petersburg to Moscow to save the marriage of her brother Prince Oblonsky, who had had a love affair with his housemaid. Anna Karenina has a cold marriage with her husband, Count Alexei Karenin, and they have a son. Anna meets the cavalry officer Count Vronsky at the train station and they feel attracted by each other. Soon she learns that Vronsky will propose Kitty, who is the younger sister of her sister-in-law Dolly. Anna satisfactorily resolves the infidelity case of her brother and Kitty invites her to stay for the ball. However, Anna Karenina and Vronsky dance in the ball, calling the attention of the conservative society. Soon they have a love affair that will lead Anna Karenina to a tragic fate.

Style over substance, superficial melodrama

Finally the 2 hours were over and I could leave! This is one of the worst movies of the year - save yourself the money and buy the book, if you insist.

What a pretentious, over-the-top melodrama... I felt seriously embarrassed to sit through it. Overall bad performances, possibly created by the director's insistence to try some new style.

Newsflash: It didn't work.

The theater-style setup, constant moving of set pieces, semi-choreography of background characters, constant musical accompaniment and mixing it all with some realistic sets does all but incapacitate whatever seriousness was left in the source material.

If feels like a puppet theater with airs. Razzie please.

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