Anna Karenina

I read the book as soon as I heard the movie was coming out. Not just because the movie was coming out - I was actually meaning to read it for a while, but because I love movies, I figured reading the actual story before watching the movie would give me more insight into how and why the story develops as it does.

So the movie - it was well produced! Keira Knightley is beautiful and impressive as a leading lady. And Jude Law, of course, is handsome as ever, with excellent performance timing. For a screen play, if the viewer is only judging the story as a cinematic production, and not comparing it to Tolstoy's original novel - it was good. The style of the production - especially the transitions - was really unique; at times it felt like I was watching a theater performance.

I think some of the choices that were made on which scenes to exclude from the original novel in the making of the movie, took away from the density and magnitude that the story conveys. Its impossible to capture everything, but some events were even inaccurately conveyed which detracts from the viewers understanding why Anna's character or Kitty's character (Alicia Vikander) made the decisions they did. Even Kitty's story - which is beautiful and intense even relative to Anna's - was diminished and shortened in the movie. The viewer would never know if not for the book.

So I rate Anna Karenina a 4.75 - well done, but better choices could have been made to keep it truer to Tolstoy's original work.