Anna Karenina [Blu-ray]

Director: Joe Wright Joe Wright

Overview

Director Joe Wright reteams with Keira Knightley for this version of Anna Karenina, which boasts a script by Tom Stoppard. Knightley stars as the title character, a Russian woman who cheats on her respected husband (Jude Law) with a young soldier (Aaron Johnson) and suffers greatly for her betrayal. Wright sets the action in a theater, often segueing from scene to scene by utilizing different spaces within the same set. Anna Karenina screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/15/2022
UPC:	0810072549136
Original Release:	2012
Rating:	R
Source:	Universal
Language:	English
Time:	2:10:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Keira Knightley	Anna Karenina
Jude Law	Karenin
Aaron Taylor-Johnson	Vronsky
Matthew Macfadyen	Oblonsky
Domhnall Gleeson	Levin
Alicia Vikander	Kitty
Kelly Macdonald	Dolly
Ruth Wilson	Princess Betsy Tverskoy
Olivia Williams	Countess Vronsky
Emily Watson	Countess Lydia Ivanovna
Eric MacLennan	Matvey
Theo Morrissey	Grisha Oblonsky,Lili Oblonsky,Tanya Oblonsky,Vasya Oblonsky
Freya Galpin	Masha Oblonsky
Marine Battier	Mlle. Roland
Guro Nagelhus Schia	Annushka
Aruhan Galieva	Aruhan
Carl Grose	Korney
Bryan Hands	Mikhail Slyudin
Oskar McNamara	Serozha
Luke Newberry	Vasily Lukich
Michael Shaeffer	Doorkeeper
Steven Beard	Elderly Waiter
Pip Torrens	Prince Shcherbatsky
Susanne Lothar	Princess Shcherbatsky
Alexandra Roach	Countess Nordston
Henry Lloyd-Hughes	Burisov
David Wilmot	Nikolai
Tannishtha Chatterjee	Masha
Joseph Macnab	Guards Officer
Nick Holder	Stationmaster
Claire Greenway	Austrian Princess
Mike Shepherd	Wheel Tapper
Arthur Nightingale	Oblonsky's Servant
Buffy Davis	Agafia
Gala Wesson	Kitchen Maid
Eros Vlahos	Boris
Kyle Soller	Korsunsky
Sam Cox	Kapitonich
Max Bennett	Petritsky
Holliday Grainger	Baroness
Jude Monk McGowan	Tuskevitch
Antony Byrne	Colonel
Michelle Dockery	Princess Myagkaya
Emerald Fennell	Princess Merkalova
Sarine Sofair	Anna's Friend
Thomas Howes	Yashvin
Raphaël Personnaz	Alexander Vronsky
Bill Skarsgård	Makhotin
Cara Delevingne	Princess Sorokina
Bodil Blain	Princess Sorokina Senior
Hera Hilmar	Varya
Kenneth Collard	Prince Tverskoy
Steve Evets	Theodore
Conor McCarry	Young Peasant
Giles King	Stremov
Martin Wimbush	Anna's Doctor
James Northcote	Princess Betsy's Footman
Duncan Wisbey	Shopkeeper
Jamie Beamish	Opera House Husband
Shirley Henderson	Opera House Wife
Simon Muller	Opera House Manager
Nikolai Lester	Piano Prodigy
Tillie-Bett Grant	Baby Anya
Dario Marianelli	Composer

Technical Credits

Tom Stoppard

Lev Tolstoy

Joe Wright	Director
Tom Stoppard	Screenwriter
Eric Fellner	Producer
Paul Webster	Producer
Tim Bevan	Producer
Debra Hayward	Executive Producer
Liza Chasin	Executive Producer,Producer
Paul Carter	Sound/Sound Designer
Peter J. Robertson	Camera Operator
Dixie Chassay	Casting
Jina Jay	Casting
Lee Sheward	Stunts
Mark Holt	Special Effects Supervisor
Susanna Lenton	Script Supervisor
John Casali	Sound Mixer
Martin Wilde	Stunts
William Willoughby	Stunts
Mark Appleby	Sound Effects
Lev Tolstoy	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Classic stories can be told and retold, but Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, considered by some the greatest novel ever written, has had more than its fair share of movie adaptations. Director Joe Wright distinguishes his particular version thanks to some jazzy showmanship, and an excellent script from award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard. Distilling a book of more than a thousand pages into a 130-minute movie requires a particular skill set that few filmmakers possess, but Stoppard deftly introduces us to Anna (Keira Knightley), the wife of the politically powerful Karenin (Jude Law) as she gets a letter from her brother Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen) begging her to come visit him in Moscow in order to help him patch up his relationship with his wife Dolly (Kelly Macdonald), who has grown increasingly weary due to her husband's affairs. On the train there, she strikes up a conversation with Countess Vronsky (Olivia Williams), and the two are met at the station by Vronsky's soldier son (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who immediately becomes drawn to Anna -- and her to him. So begins a star-crossed relationship that will forever alter the destiny of numerous people. There are lots of narrative building blocks that need to be laid before this story can move, and the most intriguing aspect of the movie is that while Stoppard's straightforward approach to the story provides a solid foundation, Wright dazzles us visually during the lengthy set-up of so many characters and relationships. The director seems to be filming the entire movie in a single theater space with his camera roving ceaselessly across the stage, down into the orchestra pit, and even high up into the rafters. The unexpected visual segues, and the unmoored camera recall Baz Luhrmann's approach to spectacle in Moulin Rouge, and the rather bold creative choice pays off in spades. As elaborately constructed as the opening half hour of the film is, we still easily grasp the story that's being framed without ever growing restless or overwhelmed. Once all the players are established, and we get a ballroom party scene even more technically complex and emotionally rewarding than a similar scene in Wright's first-rate feature-film debut, Pride and Prejudice, the director eases up on the theatricality and lets the actors carry the growing emotional weight of the material. Knightley is solid at the center of it all playing a woman who yearns for passion even as she sees what it will do to her family, Jude Law does superb work as the wronged husband who still loves his wife even as she humiliates him, Kelly Macdonald brings moral heft to the film with some quietly forceful words about consequences, and Macfadyen gets all of the funny lines and serves up numerous moments of welcome comic relief -- he'll make you smile just with his jaunty walk. While these unconventional visuals will draw ire from purists, it's hard to deny that Wright sticks to it for just the right amount of time for the process to serve his purpose. Once he's set up all the pieces, the story plays out in handsome period detail. Those who want a top-notch Masterpiece Theater-like production of this classic will be enthralled by the back half of the movie, where the fatalistic certainty of Anna's comeuppance is a guarantee even while we wonder about its fairness. It's hard to argue that tackling this story again was necessary, and this version can't be called definitive or revelatory. However, Wright has done an admirable job of investing this tale that's more than a century old with a modern sensibility that augments rather than sacrifices the original setting. He's made a movie that's easy to admire and respect.