Movie · 2012 · Drama, Romance, History · 2h 9m · R · English
Curator score: 4.9/10 (316.5K ratings)
An epic story of love.
Overview
In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.9/10
IMDb: 6.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.57/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 63%
Metacritic: 63
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
Joe Wright
Production
Working Title Films, Focus Features
Cast
Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen, Eric MacLennan, Kelly Macdonald, Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Olivia Williams, Ruth Wilson, Emily Watson, Michelle Dockery, Raphaël Personnaz, David Wilmot, Emerald Fennell, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Pip Torrens, Susanne Lothar, Alexandra Roach, Holliday Grainger
Curator Review
Verdict
A lavish, highly stylized adaptation that turns a familiar tragic romance into a bold theatrical spectacle. The performances and production design are the main draw, with the film’s formal conceit giving the period drama a fresh, sometimes divisive energy.
Best for
viewers who like ornate period dramas
fans of tragic romance and social scandal
people drawn to bold visual experimentation
audiences who enjoy literary adaptations with a modern edge
Skip if
you want a straightforward, traditional costume drama
you dislike heightened theatrical style
you prefer emotionally restrained romance
you are looking for a brisk, plot-first adaptation
Overview
Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina is less interested in museum realism than in turning Tolstoy’s world into a stage of public performance. That choice gives the film a distinctive pulse: society feels choreographed, judgment feels omnipresent, and desire looks both intoxicating and doomed from the start.
Worth noting
Keira Knightley anchors the film with a performance that leans into fragility, vanity, and desperation in equal measure, while the surrounding cast helps sell the sense of a world where reputation is everything. The film’s visual invention is its biggest asset, even when the stylization occasionally distances the emotional core.
Bottom line
It is not the most accessible version of the story, but it is one of the most memorable. If you want a period romance that feels alive, artificial, and tragic all at once, this is a strong watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Betty (3★) · 9877 likes
gorgeous visuals (and by that i mean aaron taylor-johnson’s face)
russman (2.5★) · 8180 likes
There seemed to be a very large British population in Russia
🔆jobelle🔆 (4★) · 6148 likes
men, what’s stopping u from looking like aaron taylor-johnson?
maya (4★) · 5446 likes
keira knightley’s back must hurt from carrying the period piece industry
mya (5★) · 4783 likes
the way kiera knightley got to lick aaron taylor-johnson’s mustache i feel so sick that should’ve been me
A classic doomed romance that shares the same rush of passion and inevitability.
Topics
period drama, tragic romance, literary adaptation, high society, melodrama, lush visuals, theatrical staging, class conflict, forbidden love, 19th century