Anna Karenina

Name: Anna Karenina
Genre: Drama
Released: November 16, 2012
Duration: 129 min
Rating: 63
Cast: Aaron Johnson, Jude Law, Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen

2012

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 147 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 147 Ratings

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ANNA KARENINA

Movie Details & Credits

Focus Features | Release Date: November 16, 2012

Starring: Aaron Johnson, Jude Law, Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen

Summary: The story unfolds in its original late-19th-century Russia high-society setting and powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart, from the passion between adulterers to the bond between a mother and her children. As Anna questions her happiness, change comes to her family, friends, and community. (Focus Features)

Director: Joe Wright

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 129 min

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Awards & Rankings

89	#89 Most Shared Movie of 2012

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Washington Post - Ann Hornaday

Nov 15, 2012

While Wright's self-conscious theatricality and dollhouse aesthetic conjure comparisons to Baz Luhrmann and Wes Anderson, he outstrips both those filmmakers in moral seriousness and maturity. Read full review

IndieWire - Eric Kohn

Nov 15, 2012

Wright's extraordinary long takes draw you into the universe of Anna Karenina with a seamless approach that a straightforward literary adaptation could never accomplish. Read full review

Miami Herald - Connie Ogle

Nov 29, 2012

Wright's film is visually stimulating to be sure, but he never loses sight of the raw human emotions that make Anna Karenina a classic. Read full review

Entertainment Weekly - Lisa Schwarzbaum

Nov 14, 2012

In making the radical artistic choice to tell the story as if it were being enacted by players on a stage, Wright falls passionately in love with his own fanciful artifices. Read full review

Chicago Tribune - Michael Phillips

Nov 15, 2012

At its most frantic the cutting and staging here veers perilously close to Baz Luhrmann "Moulin Rouge!" territory for comfort. ... I'd rather have seen Wright's carefully elaborated production on a stage, instead of in a movie partly on a stage. Read full review

The Guardian - Peter Bradshaw

Sep 9, 2012

The Wright/Stoppard Anna Karenina is not a total success, but it's a bold and creative response to the novel. Read full review

San Francisco Chronicle - Mick LaSalle

Nov 15, 2012

You know there is something seriously wrong with Anna Karenina when you start rooting for the train. Read full review

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User Reviews

Harmiclir

Nov 22, 2012

Keira Knightley and Jude Law are extraordinary. Wright's unique and beautifully conceived version of the film, using Tom Stoppard's intelligent adaptation, struck me as perfect for rendering the depth and complexity of the story. The "artifice" of the setting, design and art direction areKeira Knightley and Jude Law are extraordinary. Wright's unique and beautifully conceived version of the film, using Tom Stoppard's intelligent adaptation, struck me as perfect for rendering the depth and complexity of the story. The "artifice" of the setting, design and art direction are brought forth with sensitivity and satisfying wholeness. Highly, highly recommended for adults who want to participate in the construction of a wonderful film and story.… Expand

3 of 5 users found this helpful32

RobertBrogan

Sep 27, 2015

Anna Karenina is a great story, and this is an adaptation that gets better each time you see it. At first, it can be a bit confusing, because it is like a musical piece that one has to hear more than once to get the feel of; but a good amount of feeling does go into the film. Kiera KnightlyAnna Karenina is a great story, and this is an adaptation that gets better each time you see it. At first, it can be a bit confusing, because it is like a musical piece that one has to hear more than once to get the feel of; but a good amount of feeling does go into the film. Kiera Knightly plays a very sympathetic Anna: natural, and not exactly naive, but at the same time does not really know what she is doing as she is pulled about by her "demon". The film looks great and the stage-play motif is brought off magnificently with vital creative spirit. The main downside of the film is that Count Vronsky does not come off as someone worth ruining oneself over (though perhaps others will think different). On the other hand, the scenes between Anna and her husband (played by Jude Law) have very good dramatic tension and draw the film through each act. All-in-all, Anna Karenina is a good film with rewatch value. This is a commercial production, but a very creative and interesting one. My rating is a touch on the high side (relative to what one should expect), but it suits some of my tastes, and I personally enjoyed this film quite a bit.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

root_

Dec 5, 2014

Keira Knightley and Jude Law gave some stellar performances . I don't know how much Joe Wright gave justice to Leo Tolstoy's epic novel .
I enjoyed the movie up to some extent keeping in mind that it has mixed reviews irrespective of the fact that I'm haven't read the novel itself.
TheKeira Knightley and Jude Law gave some stellar performances . I don't know how much Joe Wright gave justice to Leo Tolstoy's epic novel .
I enjoyed the movie up to some extent keeping in mind that it has mixed reviews irrespective of the fact that I'm haven't read the novel itself.
The dollhouse version of screenplay was enjoyable , Tolstoy's was very lengthy and in parts so it was tough to get the right emotions in just 2 hours .
Jude Law as Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin was some extraordinary character a true inspiration a true man .… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

dante_finn

Nov 18, 2012

Joe Wright is a master of puzzle-like construction and supplies an excellently balanced script. This movie may have a chance of winning a oscar for Best Actress, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography.

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

ClariseSamuels

Mar 17, 2013

Anna Karenina is a powerful story of marital duty and obligation versus lustful passion and the pursuit of personal, if not egomaniacal, happiness. It is a popular theme. Every time I went to the video store to rent it, every single copy was out, even though the allotted shelf space was thatAnna Karenina is a powerful story of marital duty and obligation versus lustful passion and the pursuit of personal, if not egomaniacal, happiness. It is a popular theme. Every time I went to the video store to rent it, every single copy was out, even though the allotted shelf space was that which is usually reserved for blockbusters. When I finally procured a copy that had just been returned one minute earlier, I told the clerk that I heard the film was produced as though it was a stage play. He replied, “Yes, but it has more energy than that, although it's a little loosey-goosey.” I didn't have time to ask him what “loosey-goosey” meant, but I later looked it up and it means “relaxed, not tense.” I'm not sure that term is applicable. The stagey pretensions seem to actually make this version of Tolstoy's story stiffer and more formal rather than relaxed, especially in scenes where actors are frozen in place or where actors walk to the edge of the stage to hit their mark. I think maybe the clerk thought that loosey-goosey meant something more like looney-gooney or daffy-waffy, because this Anna Karenina is a little crazy. Tolstoy's Anna Karenina was a serious, mature, and intelligent woman, who may have been emotionally distraught about her situation, but she wasn't crazy even though she did commit suicide, but that was a surprise ending. The theater stage backdrop is done par excellence but it is often distracting, and the film works better in the scenes where the theater backdrop is not visible. Just when you think the director dropped the ruse, the footlights, rafters, ladders, ropes and pulleys are back. The actors are almost perfect--Keira Knightley is an exquisite Anna Karenina; Jude Law is a stern and forbidding Karenin; Alicia Vikander is an angelic Kitty; Domhnall Gleeson is a suffering, brooding, and faithful Levin; and Matthew Macfadyen is a hard-working and perfectly bourgeois aristocrat, civil servant, and family man. And then we have Count Vronsky, whose seductive powers are the pivot upon which this story has to rotate, but unfortunately, the director took some liberties that are a little shocking. When the producers of the Bond franchise decided to bet on a blonde Bond, they won. But a blonde Vronsky? Tolstoy's Vronsky had dark hair--he was handsome, elegant, perhaps angry, pondering, and tormented. If he was a bon vivant, it was not that evident. His fickleness and his vices were not an obvious aspect of his demeanor. You had to get to know him to find out that he was an untrustworthy cad, a scoundrel, a louse, and a worm. On the surface, he was a gentleman. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a good actor who played John Lennon a while back, but his rendering of Vronsky is a boyish, fun-loving rake, perhaps even a mama's boy, whose carefree attitude causes damage of which he is blissfully unaware. This Vronsky should not have turned the head of the virtuous, lofty, and married Anna Karenina. Also, the movie fails to portray the depth of the grief and despair that Vronsky caused Kitty when he visibly lost interest in her after one dance with Anna Karenina, nor does it do justice to Levin's inner torment when Kitty rejects him because she believes that Vronsky is about to propose to her. On the other hand, the portrayal of Anna's neurotic behavior may go a little too far in making her out to be mentally ill. I don't think Anna's behavior was meant to portray mental illness as much as it was meant to portray the consequences of Vronsky's amoral behavior (symbolized by him riding his beloved horse too hard and then having to shoot it), the inevitable outcome of an affair based mostly on physical attraction, and the destructive power of social ostracization. The stage-set theatricality is artistically pleasing, but it burdens the film, causing it to be drawn out in slow motion, making for a long and tedious decline of this noble and tragic literary heroine.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

lancekoz

Feb 17, 2013

At the opening, I was thrilled with the visual complexity of the stage play conceit, but all that could not lift the tedium. Why were all the actors spouting their lines in a bizarrely rushed and completely passionless manner? Barely a sense of humanity in there, and no one to like. JustAt the opening, I was thrilled with the visual complexity of the stage play conceit, but all that could not lift the tedium. Why were all the actors spouting their lines in a bizarrely rushed and completely passionless manner? Barely a sense of humanity in there, and no one to like. Just some overly self-conscious, blatantly modern styling without a grip of the material.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

oblique15

Sep 3, 2013

This was just unwatchable for me. Took me 15 minutes before giving up on this play/movie.Not many movies I don`t finish, but this one is added to the list. It`s was all over the place. Maybe they wanted an award for most ridicules movie.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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