Anna Karenina Film Review

Joe Wrights bold new theatrical version of the timeless story of love Anna Karenina is one of my most recently discovered loves. The novel orginally written in a series of instalments and published in 1873-77 was written by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. 

 Having not read the novels before watching this film, i didn't quite know what to expect. One of the immediate things i noticed when i had finished watching was that the film was very different than what i had imagined. This shows us that the trailer was not typical in the way that they are normally are made, showing the entire film before you've even stepped into the theatre in which case you already know all of the punchlines, dramatic suspenses and basically how it ends. 

 This is both a positive and a negative because it meant that when i saw the trailer, i wasn't really motivated or excited to watch this film, in fact i actually ended up watching it by mere chance that it was on catch up on the TV. However, the positive is that i was completely shocked and moved when i did end up watching it, Joe Wright does his best to highlight how things were back then when it comes to poverty, economy and discrimination between classes, race and especially gender. It gives you a real feel for how you would live back in those days. The film is very theatrical, which some may enjoy and others may not. I feel the target audience would most likely be women or teenagers as it is of course a story of forbidden love and tragedy. The film teaches how easy humans fall in and out of love - and how far they're willing to go for the person that means the world to them. 

 It also shows me how if women cheated on their husbands back then, they would be damned for the rest of their lives. As Anna was, to the point where she took her own life because she couldn't take it anymore. But repeatedly throughout the piece, men are always cheating on their wives, i feel that is so unfair. 

 Keira Knightley plays Anna, she is known for playing very elegant and dramatic roles. I feel she takes to the character well, Anna was a strong, proud and very popular woman. Keira being like that in real life, can reflect those elements in playing her role too. Jude Law plays Anna's husband, who because of his obsessive behaviour, we think to be the bad guy in the beginning - however in the end he sticks by his wife until the very end. 

 This film is very dramatic, intense and dark yet light, theatrical and comedic in some parts. I definitely recommend watching.