Anna Karenina (2012)
Rated: R
Genre: Drama
Street Date: February 19, 2013
Available On: DVD, Blu-ray/DVD Combo

The Film: Anna Karenina (Keira Knightly), a high-society aristocrat, strays from her faithful husband (Jude Law) for an affair with the young Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

The Extras: Deleted Scenes, Director’s Commentary, “Anna Karenina: An Epic Story About Love,” “Adapting Tolstoy,” “Keira as Anna,” “On the Set with Director Joe Wright,” “Dressing Anna and “Anna Karenina Time-Lapse Photography

Recommendation: Joe Wright’s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” was the most beautiful film of 2012. Wright bravely places all of the city scenes on a stage in an empty theater (thematically supporting Tolstoy’s belief that the “decency” of the upper class is a facade), which gives the film a different feel than Wright’s previous period dramas “Atonement” and “Pride & Prejudice.” Unfortunately it might be one of the reasons the film feels emotionally distant and overly presentational. The romance between Anna and Vronsky has always been superficial, but Knightly and Taylor-Johnson have no chemistry whatsoever and that makes Anna’s decent into selfishness seem all the more irrational.

-Ryan Michael Painter