Director Joe Wright’s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s 1877 novel
Anna Karenina is one of the most
visually stunning and artistically bold films I’ve seen in quite some time.
Wright places most of his plot within the confines of a dilapidated theatre and
has his actors make use of the stage, stalls and behind the scenes areas when
forming the sets of late Tsarist Saint Petersburg. Actors will walk from one
part of the theatre to another with sets and costumes changing around them, all
with the hustle and bustle of both a real theatre and lively city. It’s a
stylistic decision which was probably met with scepticism by studio bosses and
the like but works incredibly well to bring to life the characters which
themselves are so wonderfully written by Tolstoy.
Anna Karenina (Keira Knightly) is married with a son to senior
statesman and a man who is greatly admired and respected in society, Count Alexei
Karenin (Jude Law). Their marriage is typical of the society in which they live
in that it was not for love and he is much older than she is. On a trip to
visit her brother Prince Stepan (Matthew Macfadyen) in Moscow
