Anna Karenina

This is the third time Keira Knightley has collaborated with Joe Wright.

I would like to think that Joe Wright had seen Rita Azevedo Gomes artistic treat A Woman’s Revenge (A Vinganca de uma Mulher) 2011 before he made the latest adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s bittersweet love story Anna Karenina (2012). That was based on a 19^th century story adapted for the screen and it was also very theatrical, resembling a stage play with visuals that at times looked like work’s of art. Wrights third period drama after Pride and Prejudice in 2005 and Atonement in 2007,which also stared the beautiful photogenic Keira Knightley, also has a stage setting in a rather grand theatre where most of the film is based although unlike the Gomes film it feels that it could have included song and dance numbers! But credit to our London born film director he presents a familiar story in a completely different way, a trifle long winded but beautifully made and shot by Seamus McGarvey the DOP responsible for We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011) and The Hours (2002) and many other very well known movies.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson play's a very unpleasant Count Vronsky

It must have been difficult even for a playwright of Tom Stoppard’s unique talents to produce a screenplay from a novel that apparently contained 950 pages. But he made a good job of transposing the obnoxious characters from the written page to the big screen. A story of upper-class tsarist society that become scandalised by the extra marital affair of a married women (a very well cast Keira Knightley) to a young Count Vronsky (a miss casted Aaron Taylor–Johnson) but are not scandalised by the death of the wheel tapper killed by a train on a busy railway station. To my mind it’s not surprising that within 40 years this privileged society was destroyed by the Russian Revolution an event that eventually lead to a Bolshevik government. 

Hanna

Hanna enjoying a spot of home schooling. 

After experiencing two of Joe Wright’s previous directorial outings, the 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen romantic drama Pride and Prejudice and Atonement (2007) which was also a period drama this time an adaptation of a Ian McEwan’s romantic/war drama. His latest movie is, as they say, something completely different, Hanna (2011) is an action packed suspense thriller starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett. The intriguing plot involves a young girl (Ronan) that was brought up in the depths of a Finland forest to be that rare commodity, a perfect assassin! Raised and trained by her father Eric Heller (Bana) a disgraced ex CIA agent, Hanna is finally ready to tackle her fathers demons in the outside world. As she travels across Europe on her mission agents of the ruthless intelligence officer, and Heller’s old boss Marissa Wiegler played by the versatile Cate Blanchett, pursue her, which involve some very exciting chase sequences. Hanna is eventually forced to face up to some startling revelations about her very existence!

Agent Marissa Wiegler not a women to cross!!

A polished attempt by Wright to try something different, with a young actress you just can’t ignore, pure entertainment that works very well and along with the original innovative score composed by the British duo The Chemical Brothers makes an enjoyable piece of escapist distraction.