Joe Wright made his directorial debut with 2005’s Pride and Prejudice. That movie solidified him as one of this generations auteurs. From there, he went on to make movies like Atonement, The Soloist, and Hanna. All of his films share a very similar vision and the same style, which (in my opinion) is absolutely beautiful. So, when I heard that Joe Wright was going to try and tackle Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, I was pretty excited. I didn’t know much about the story, though I had heard that it was cherished by many, and a lot of people were not looking forward to it. My view was: Joe Wright is going to make this movie something spectacular to look at, even if it doesn’t fully deliver on story (like Hanna and The Soloist before it.) Needless to say, I was right...to an extent.
The plot of Anna Karenina is really hard to sum up in a short paragraph, so let me just put it this way: it is a story of love. The film depicts several different relationships and shows just how variable love can be and tries and shows a distinction between love, lust, and infatuation. The main plot revolves around Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley), her husband Karenin (Jude Law), and Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson.) This plotline is contrasted by the story of Levin (Domhnall Gleeson) and Kitty (Alicia Vikander.) There is also a beautiful plotline that shows exactly what happens when love breaks down between Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen) and Dolly (Kelly Macdonald.) This, like the Levin/Kitty story, perfectly contrasts the story of Anna/Karenin and how their relationships deteriorates.
One thing about Joe Wright’s direction that has always captivated me was his use of lengthy shots. His direction is so excellent in the sense that he has the actors movie in certain ways that complement the movement of the camera. These lengthy shots have almost become a staple of his films that you usually expect them by now. Needless to say, he did not skimp in this regard with Anna Karenina. Since the entire film takes place in this theatre setting, a lot of the long shots were used to show changing of scenery. I thought this was beautifully done by Wright, because instead of just showing scenery changing, he showed the characters moving around the cinema while things changed around them. The scene where Levin and Oblonsky go from Oblonsky’s office to the “soiree” was absolutely breathtaking.
The contrast between this quick-to-action type of love between Anna and Vronsky and the slow realization of love between Levin and Kitty is so beautiful. I imagine it is just like this in Tolstoy’s original text, but I found it incredibly moving on screen. All of the contrast between the different relationships were deeply moving. Tom Stoppard’s script was really well put together to make these contrasting themes resonate so deeply throughout the entire film. I thought the film did drag at some points, but it wasn’t enough to completely take me out of the story and make me feel like the pacing was awful. I can’t say enough about Tom Stoppard’s writing, because he wrote two of my favorite films (Brazil and Rosencrantz and Guidenstern Are Dead) and I will forever praise him for that. I think he really nailed the style of the film really well, and a lot of the dialogue (especially from Levin) was very eloquently written.
Joe Wright seems to have noticed that what he did with Pride and Prejudice and Atonement seems to have worked. So, it’s no surprise when he teamed up with a lot of the same people that he worked with on one/both of those films. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey comes back after having been Wright’s DoP on Atonement and The Soloist to deliver his best work yet. The cinematography here is stunning. McGarvey knows exactly how to frame shots so that the lighting is absolutely perfect.
One thing that I’ve found I don’t talk about enough on here is music. I might need to change my rating system to incorporate that, since I find that ridiculously important for a film. Wright is collaborating with Dario Marianelli for the fourth time with Anna Karenina. Just like with Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, Marianelli has written a beautifully poetic score that not only complements the film, but adds a completely new element that was not there in the other collaborations. This score is absolutely essential in this film because it makes the whole “this all takes place in a theater thing” feel real. I really hate that so many people are talking about the Life of Pi score so much when scores like this exist. It absolutely blows any other score from this year out of the water (except for maybe Alexandre Desplat’s score for Argo.)
I’ve noticed that I talk a lot about individual performances in most of my reviews, so I’m going to try and not dedicate like seven paragraphs to talk about each individual performer. Let me just say this: this was truly an ensemble piece. Every single actor was just a cog in a bigger mechanism. They all played their parts so well that it made the entire film seem that much better. Some people that stood out to me were: Domhnall Gleeson, Jude Law, and Matthew Macfadyen. That’s not to say that everyone wasn’t amazing, I just found that these three guys gave the strongest performances. Especially, Gleeson. Every seen that he was in was absolutely captivating. He made me really feel for his character and root for him through the whole thing. After having seen him in Never Let Me Go, I was really waiting for his breakout performance, and this was it. To me, he has ceased to just be Bill Weasley and will forever be Levin.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To sum it up (which I feel obligated to do, since most people on read this section) Anna Karenina is another ace from Joe Wright. It is the perfect meld of writing, directing, acting and scoring. The visuals in this film (physical and cinematography) are absolutely breathtaking, and I wouldn’t be super offended if that was all you enjoyed from this film. The pacing is a little off at times, and if you don’t enjoy period pieces like this, it could jarr you out of it. But I absolutely loved this movie and fully intend to see it again (and might even buy it when it comes out on Blu-Ray.)
Writing: 8/10
Directing: 9/10
Acting: 9.5/10
Pacing: 8/10
Rewatchability: 8/10
Score: 8.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment