Film

Anna Karenina (2012)

Director: Joe Wright

Synopsis

Having attempted to bust out of the frocks ‘n’ frills ghetto with his terrific action thriller ‘Hanna’, director Joe Wright (‘Atonement’) is back on familiar ground with this adaptation of Tolstoy’s nineteenth-century novel. The story concerns a young married aristocratic woman, Anna, who conducts an affair with the wealthy Count Vronsky but cannot save herself from spiralling into depression and paranoia. For all its country-house trappings, Tolstoy’s novel is far from the demure frolics of Jane Austen, so imagine a much tougher film than Wright’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’, despite the appearance of perennial corset wearer Keira Knightley in the title role. Knightley tops a solid British cast, with Aaron Johnson as Vronsky, Jude Law as the husband and other roles filled by the likes of Kelly Macdonald, Olivia Williams, Matthew Macfadyen and Emily Watson, who is presumably looking to try something solid and grown-up after a decade at the ‘Harry Potter’ coalface.