I didn’t get round to seeing Anna Karenina at the cinema, it was one of those films that came and went too quickly, but now that I have seen it I don’t mind too much.
I do like Joe Wrights Movies. With the exception of The Soloist as I haven’t actually seen it. Hanna was one of my favourites of 2011 and that tracking shot of Dunkirk in Atonement is amazing. Joe Wright likes to work with the same group of actors as many of the actors in this movie have popped up in previous movies too, Wright clearly loves Keira Knightly as he has worked with her three times now. They work well together.
Joe Wright should probably have this one in the bag, adaption of a classic novel. He has done it before after all. The story of Anna Karenina is about well Anna. She is basically a desperate housewife, whose husband is sensible and nice yet dull and bald. She gets one wiff of the coconut shampoo in Count Vronskys beautiful beach boy blonde locks and before you know it shes gone and done a Tilda Swinton. There is some story to do with a parallel couple who are nice and communicate with tiny bricks with letters on, but they are boring so I wasn’t really paying much attention to them.
Anna Karenina is what you’d call artsy. It is set in a fantasy theatre where the characters sort of live and the stage hands work around them but they also leave and go to actual locations too. Is this to signify that everyone is playing a role in 19th century Russian society or is it that there was no budget to actually go to Russia? I found the theatre setting to be a distraction and doesn’t help me engage with characters I am struggling to like.
There is no doubt that the film is gorgeous it won the Oscar for costume design. The colour of the costumes is another use of symbol throughout . But we the audience have no connection to them, and they don’t appear to have much of a connection with each other. I don’t think Anna and Count Vronsky have one conversation in the entire film. They dance once and thats it, they are in love. The dance is also a bit weird, its a Waltz meets Krump. 
Its the arms, strange.
He smolders. A lot.
He smolders while looking out of windows.
He smolders when looking up.
He smolders in white.
He smolders with his mouth open.
He even smolders without using his eyes.
He smolders on a horse.
She just gets more crazy. We can tell by the symbolic use of the colour blue and the presence of morphine.
pop babble 
Good review. It’s a beautiful-looking movie, but that can only go so far when you have a dry and slightly dull story like this. Knightley always keeps it interesting, but honestly, to what degree does that matter after awhile?
Agreed. It doesn’t make me want to make the commitment to read the 1000 page doorstop that is the Tolstoy novel!