Wright’s Anna Karenina: Noble Failure?

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Amanda Shubert’s essay “Love in Excess: Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina” takes two of Wright’s film adaptations, Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007), and perceptively compares and contrasts them to Anna Karenina (2012).

According to Shubert, Anna Karenina is a “mess” compared to Wright’s two previous film adaptations. Shubert claims:

The Russian aristocracy may have lived for style, but in Wright’s movie, style becomes its own object, indolent and over-indulged. By reading Tolstoy’s drama as meta-drama, he winds up with melodrama.

Shubert’s essay on Anna Karenina is a fascinating read that explores the problems with how literary style and form are represented on the screen.

Pat Johnson is currently working on his master’s in Fiction Writing at San Francisco State University, and is the owner and editor of the satirical news website The New Porker. When Pat’s not reading or writing he’s likely squeezing a lime into a Tecate and headed to the dance floor. He also creates short films, documentaries, and sketch comedies. Pat is completing his first novel, The Virgin and Marilyn Monroe, and writing a book of Creative Non-Fiction short stories. More from this author →