On Breaking the Rules with Anna Karenina

It should come as no surprise that Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina is more than just your average period drama. Wright’s adaptation of Atonement (2007) had a savage edge that shocked and gave the film a vividly contemporary feel. The Soloist (2009) and Hanna (2011) were both well constructed genre pieces that benefitted from Wright’s creative camera.

Throughout his relatively short career as a director, Wright has quickly learnt all the rules and now he knows them, with Anna Karenina he breaks them. Wright takes creative film making to another level. This film is best described as a mixture of film, opera and dance. The way Wright intertwines sets and scenery using characters and props feels utterly unique in contemporary, mainstream cinema. Characters move as if dancing. Twirling in and out of each other’s space and in and out of sets that frequently overlap in fascinating ways.

This film is an absolute treat on the eyes, assuming the audience posses the right level of film fluency. As after all, film is a language and to fully appreciate Anna Karenina, you need a high degree of fluency. This adaptation is not for everyone and will anger some audience members who will find its treatment of Tolstoy’s text sacrilegious.

As with Atonement, Wright has made a period film (19^th Century Russia), complete with period costumes and props feel incredibly contemporary. The heavy plot flows unpredictably between different narrative threads and the actors all play their roles with a sense of tradition, yet modernity. Jude Law especially is fantastic as Alexei Karenin.

Where Anna Karenina falls down is in the emotional resonance that is lost amongst the magnificent work done by Wright and his team. As engaging as the film is, the affair between Anna and Count Vronsky never feels as dangerous as it should and it is hard to become emotional invested in their lives. Even at the end, when sacrifices are made and the tragedy of the story is revealed, there is still more to enjoy about the art of the film making rather than the lives of the characters. This is a shame. If Anna Karenina packed an emotional punch to match the artistry, this would be a breathtaking film.