Is Tolstoy as universal as Shakespeare? sadly, I don't think so. I must admit that I have never read the novel - but Anna's idealistic naivete seems to outweigh the universal theme of love vs marriage. So it seems that
Anna Karenina has as it's core theme the challenge of whether marriage is for love or stability. It seems that Russian society of the late 1800's was fairly conservative - marriage was for prosperity and life; love was a much more dangerous and idealistic construct.
So it was kind of fun to see the movie occur on and
beyond a traditional stage, and to see the child's train set become larger than life - okay it is extremely cold in Russia but it seems impossible and implausible for a train to arrive at a station compeletly covered in ice!
This adaptation of the great novel was written by
Tom Stoppard and directed by Joe Wright, and oscillated between Anna’s home town of St. Petersburg and the social and political center of Moscow. The costumes were truly magnificent and Keira Knightley pouted less often than in previous roles. But it seems that the passion ignited at a railway station was somewhat shallow. Perhaps she really thought she loved him, but to sacrifice her marriage and her son for this serial flirtatious maniac seemed to be totally crazy and unbelievable. I was not happy to be proven right,as I consider myself a true romantic, but this whole crazy relationship was totally unrealistic. I just don't know why she did not take the courage to leave her longsuffering husband and start again. Although this might well have been difficult at the time, her personal integrity was seriously in doubt. So by the end of this extended film, I felt deep respect and allegiance to her boringly conservative but deeply moral husband!
