ANNA KARENINA

Leo Tolstoy’s canonical 1870s novel is many things. A melodrama following the fated love of St Petersburg socialite Anna Karenina and her lover Count Vronsky; a detailed and realist study of the virtues of the city life versus the pastoral; an exploration of the moralities surrounding monogamy, infidelity, and love; and quite simply, a literary masterpiece.

Writer Tom Stoppard and director Joe Wright’s 2012 filmic adaptation manages far less, but what it manages, it does so very well. With Keira Knightley in the titular role, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Vronsky and Jude Law a surprisingly believable and empathetic Karenin, the film’s strengths lie in the visceral expression of the sensual (the first touch of love, the scythe through the wheat) and the cloistered atmosphere of a staged society on the cusp of modernisation and revolution. What it loses in the exchange is real gritty emotion and the depth of detail that stood Tolstoy’s tale apart. It may not linger, but in the moment, it’s achingly beautiful. (AB) ***