Anna Karenina

Though his own life story was fraught with controversy, Leo Tolstoy also wrote one of the most interesting contrasts between pure love and sensual lust, in the form of Anna Karenina. This most recent adaptation succeeds on a purely visual level, but not entirely on an emotional or spiritual one.

When it is discovered by her brother’s wife that he has cheated on her with a governess, Anna Karenina (Keira Knightley) is dispatched to their home to convince her not to divorce her husband. Her success in this is undermined when she meets Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) at the station. He is immediately infatuated with her, and she with him, but Anna’s attempts to resist become more difficult once he follows her back to St. Petersburg, much to the distress of her respectable husband (Jude Law).

Count Vronsky is meant to be pursuing a marriage with Kitty (Alicia Vikander). In the hope of becoming his wife, she turns down a proposal of marriage from Levin (Domhnall Gleeson). But where one love story begins, another threatens to descend into destruction.

On several occasions, morality is addressed through its characters. Karenina quotes Scripture on the subject of “coveting your neighbor’s wife,” and Levin condemns adulterous love as being impure and ultimately unsatisfying (as is proven true in the extra-marital affair’s outcome). But where the themes of the book are much more evident, particularly when it comes to the role God plays in both Karenina and Levin’s life, here they are diminished or nonexistent, leaving viewers to read between the lines. The book’s purpose is to show us wild, passionate, sexual desire that turns itself inside out and descends into jealousy and contempt, contrasting it with a pure and innocent love that begins with an act of total forgiveness. Sadly, those themes are so downplayed in this version that Levin’s shift from an atheist to a man aware of the existence and goodness of God is also absent. What we are left with is an incomplete story that does hit some of the highlights of the moral messages of the book, but not the most important ones.

Purely from an artistic perspective, this is a masterful piece of work that approaches the material in a wholly unique way—by setting a stage. It works better than anyone anticipated, blending reality and metaphor with seamless and clever transitions. Some of the most powerful scenes are reminiscent of the director’s earlier work—much as he did with Elizabeth and Darcy in “Pride & Prejudice,” he isolates Anna and Vronsky on the dance floor, to draw us into their increasing passion for one another. The costuming is also scrumptious and everyone does a phenomenal job of acting, particularly Ms. Knightley in the lead. Whether or not it is worthy of an Oscar®, she reaches deep into the soul of the audience and, perhaps as a first for the character of Anna Karenina, makes us feel deeply sorry for her.

Unfortunately, some of the good themes of the film (such as forgiveness and the importance of marital fidelity) are undermined with sensuality, for three times we see active intimacy between couples—twice with Vronsky and Anna (there is no nudity, but lots of passionate kissing and faces in expressions of ecstasy) and once, as a reflection on a train window (this one contains movement). Side nudity is also seen as a couple sleeps entangled in one another’s arms. Many references are made to adulterous affairs and unchecked “passion.” There is one mild profanity and some violence (a pregnant woman is pushed to the ground, two people are hit by trains—one of them with a grisly aftermath).

Tolstoy powerfully shows how “love,” if unsupported with trust and fidelity, can be undermined by jealousy, self-loathing, and guilt. One of the most powerful moments is when Anna berates her husband for his forgiveness, for now she must “live with it.” Some characters condemn infidelity, others tolerate it, and a few embrace and/or dismiss its deeply sinful nature. It’s a shame that for the sake of time constraints, some important events were cut from the film, because it makes it emptier than it should be, particularly for a Christian viewer. Yet, in spite of its flaws, it still contains a powerful and sobering message of the perils of pursuing sin instead of righteousness.

Violence: Moderate / Profanity: Minor / Sex/Nudity: Heavy

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