Keira Knightly reunites with director Joe Wright for new Anna Karenina film
Tom Stoppard has penned this big-screen adaptation of the Tolstoy classic
Keira Knightley reunites with her Pride and Prejudice/Atonement director Joe Wright for yet another attempt on the frequently filmed Leo Tolstoy novel, a classic story of ‘girl-meets-boy, girl-loses-boy, girl-meets-train.’ This time around, heavyweight stage and screen scribe Tom Stoppard takes responsibility for the adaptation, hopefully injecting the romantic, tragic dalliances of 19th century Russian high society with the panache he brought to Shakespeare In Love. And fresh from his unexpected success with Chemical Brothers-scored espionage drama Hanna, Wright is on form to pull out all the requisite visual stops. Some of the casting may raise an eyebrow, while Knightley has the porcelain look for Anna, Jude Law in a goatee is no-one’s idea of Anna’s cold first husband Alexei and Aaron ‘Kick Ass’ Johnson looks like he fell into a dressing-up box as her lover Count Vronsky. However Kelly Macdonald and Emily Watson lead a strong supporting cast and cinematographer, Seamus McGarvey, has given the film a lush, warm, chocolate-box look, so Anna Karenina will at least provide an illustrated crash course for those who can’t get through the book.
General release from Fri 7 Sep.