Anna Karenina
Watched: Saturday, December 8th, 2012
Rating: 3.5 stars
What I liked best: The jewelry, the costumes, the scenery and overall stylishness.
What I liked least: I didn’t care much about the characters.
Favourite character: Matthew Macfayden as Oblonsky, although Alicia Vikander as Kitty started to grow on me a bit as well.
Favourite scene: The dancing scene between Anna and Vronsky
Random thoughts: This was a sumptuous, beautiful movie. It is filmed as though on stage, which took a little getting used to, but became quite different and elegant once you did. Everything there was to see, was just splendid. And I swear I’m not a rock hound, but Keira Knightley’s jewelry blew me away in every scene: masses of diamonds and pearls, but in these gorgeous asymmetrical settings. Is that what Russian jewels look like? The dresses were also fabulous, and the sets, and the music, and the filming, and the people: all so beautiful.
But.
These were not sympathetic characters. I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know whether you’re supposed to really be rooting for Anna, but I know I really wasn’t. And it wasn’t just the cheating thing. She just wasn’t likable. But then, the lover wasn’t either, or the husband. I didn’t really care about any of them, to be honest. I did connect a bit more with the sub-story between Kitty and Levin though.
Overall, I would say this movie was one of the more beautiful spectacles I have seen, but my not loving the characters or their story hurt it for me.
- Posted in: Based on Literature ♦ Dramas ♦ Movies ♦ Period
- Tagged: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alicia Vikander, Anna Karenina, Domhnall Gleeson, Jude Law, Keira Knightley, Kelly Macdonald, Leo Tolstoy, Matthew Macfayden, Movies
Stephanie
