Plot
In the Russian Empire in 1874, Princess Darya, nicknamed "Dolly", banishes her unfaithful husband, Prince Stephan "Stiva" Oblonsky. Stiva's sister, Anna Karenina, a socialite living in Saint Petersburg with her older husband Count Alexei Karenin and son Seryozha, travels to Moscow to persuade Dolly to forgive her brother.
Stiva meets old friend Konstantin "Kostya" Levin, a landowning aristocrat despised by Moscow's elite for preferring the countryside to city life. Levin says he loves Stiva's sister-in-law, Princess Kitty, and Stiva encourages him to propose. Kitty declines as she hopes to marry Count Alexei Vronsky, a wealthy officer. Levin meets his older brother Nikolai, who has renounced his inheritance and lives as man and wife with Masha, a prostitute. Nikolai suggests that Levin should marry a peasant. On the train, Anna meets Vronsky's mother, Countess Vronskaya, isolated by her own infidelities. Anna meets Vronsky and they are instantly attracted to each other. Anna eventually convinces Dolly to take Stiva back. At a ball, Kitty dances once with Vronsky, but throughout the evening he prefers Anna, upsetting Kitty. Vronsky tells Anna he must be wherever she goes.
Back in Saint Petersburg, Vronsky and Anna soon begin to stir gossip. Even though he has a promotion awaiting him in Tashkent, he refuses it and Anna agrees that she does not want him to leave. They later meet and make love.
Stiva informs Levin that Kitty and Vronsky will not be married. Levin focuses on country life and contemplates marrying a peasant's daughter.
Anna and Seryozha go to the Karenin estate outside Saint Petersburg. Anna visits Vronsky and reveals her pregnancy, and he wants her to leave Karenin. Anna suggests that Karenin come to the horse races but betrays her feelings when Vronsky's horse falls. Afterward, Anna admits to her husband she is Vronsky's mistress and Karenin says she must renounce him. Levin realises he still loves Kitty. Months later, Anna receives Vronsky. He tells her that his military duties have delayed his visit. Karenin discovers that Vronsky visited Anna and steals his letters to give himself grounds for a divorce.
Karenin visits Stiva and Dolly to say he is divorcing Anna. They beg him to forgive her, but he refuses. Levin and Kitty, having reunited, announce their love and marry. Anna goes into premature labour and sends for Vronsky, although she later says he could never be the man Karenin is. Karenin returns, believing Anna is dying and forgives her. Anna survives and decides to stay with her husband.
Vronsky persuades Anna to change her mind and they leave for Italy with their daughter, Anya.
Levin and Kitty return to his estate, where a sickly Nikolai lives with Masha in a storeroom. Levin tells Kitty he will send Masha away so Kitty does not have to meet her, but Kitty ignores societal norms to help Masha nurse Nikolai. Levin's love for Kitty grows.
Anna returns to Saint Petersburg for Seryozha's birthday, but Karenin dismisses her. Anna begins to suspect Vronsky of infidelity. She attends the opera with Princess Myagkaya, an outspoken socialite, but the rest of the audience shuns her. Humiliated, Anna retains her poise, only to break down at her hotel. She uses morphine to sleep.
Dolly tells her that Kitty is in Moscow to give birth. Dolly says Stiva's behaviour is unchanged, but she has come to accept and love him.
Vronsky informs Anna he must meet his mother for business. Anna becomes upset when Princess Sorokina brings Vronsky back to his home, as she believes Countess Vronskaya wants Vronsky to marry her. Anna returns to Vronsky's estate. On the train, she imagines Vronsky and Princess Sorokina making love and laughing at her. Arriving in Moscow, Anna says to herself, "Oh God. Forgive me," and jumps under a train. The scene flashes to a shocked Vronsky.
Levin returns home from work to find Kitty bathing their child. Stiva and his family eat with Levin and Kitty. Karenin, retired, is seen at his estate, with Seryozha and Anya playing.
Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 62% based on 194 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Joe Wright's energetic adaptation of Tolstoy's classic romance is a bold, visually stylized work – for both better and worse." [20] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [21]
Oliver Lyttleton of The Playlist awarded the film a B+ and called the picture a "bold reimagining" of the classic novel, comparing Wright's vision to the films of Powell and Pressburger. He noted how Knightley "continues to go from strength to strength" and also praised Law as "excellent". Even though he speculated that "the film is going to divide people enormously", he concluded it was one to "cherish despite its flaws". [22] Ian Freer of Empire awarded the film four stars out of five and was effervescent in his praise for Wright and the final result: he said "Anna Karenina militantly doesn't want to be just another costume drama; it attacks the heavyweight concerns of Russian literature (hypocrisy, jealousy, faith, fidelity, the pastoral vs. the urban, huge mustaches) with wit and verve; most exciting of all, it is filmmaking of the highest order, channeling every other art form from painting to ballet to puppetry while remaining completely cinematic". He lauded the entire cast for their work yet concluded that "this is really its director's movie". [23]
In The Observer , Jason Solomons also called Knightley "superb", and declared that the film "works beautifully...[it is] elegant and exciting [and] ...incredibly cinematic". [24] Leslie Felperin of Variety was more reserved in her praise for the film, observing that although Wright "knows how to get the best from Knightley" and noting that the film was technically "glorious", it was also "unmistakably chilly" in the storytelling. [25] The Daily Mirror singled out Knightley as "excellent" and lauded Wright for "offer[ing] a fresh vision of the Tolstoy classic", concluding the picture to be "with its beautiful cinematography and costumes... a real success". [26]
Others were less impressed with the film and Wright's take on such a classic text. The Hertfordshire Mercury conceded that "costumes and art direction are ravishing, and Seamus McGarvey's cinematography shimmers with rich colour", but ultimately found there to be "no obvious method behind this production design madness". [27] Stella Papamichael of Digital Spy also awarded the picture only two stars out of five, commenting that "the third time isn't such a charm for director Joe Wright and muse Keira Knightley". Although she found the actress "luminous in the role" she criticised Wright for "outshining" his star and affecting the narrative momentum by "favouring a glossy look over probing insights into a complicated character". [28] Neil Smith of Total Film also awarded the film two out of five stars, lamenting the fact that Wright's elaborate stage design "pull[s] the attention away from where it should be... [and] keeps [us] at arm's length, forever highlighting the smoke, mirrors and meticulous stage management that have been pressed into service to make his big idea a reality". He also dismissed Knightley's performance as "less involving" than her "similar" turn in The Duchess . [29] Richard Brody of The New Yorker criticized Wright for diverging from Tolstoy, without adding anything beyond superficialities in return: "Wright, with flat and flavorless images of an utterly impersonal banality, takes Tolstoy's plot and translates it into a cinematic language that's the equivalent of, say, Danielle Steel, simultaneously simplistic and overdone." [30]
