I am SO glad that I didn’t see Anna Karenina in the movie theaters. It was released at the same time as Les Miserables, and I had to duck and hide from the avalanche of invitations to see both from all my female friends. Somehow these classics have turned into the equivalent of chick flicks. Why didn’t I want to see these two movies? Did I really NEED another adaptation of these classics? I was quite happy with Greta Garbo and felt like a movie that cast Jude Law as the boring, old husband didn’t understand what I wanted, nay, needed in my life. Some people want to be Baz Luhrmann, but very few can come close. This version of Anna Karenina is a musical without the music. The film consciously uses the conceits of ever changing sets in a play and was set in an actual theater, but instead of effectively being a metaphor for the characters as players on a stage, it only serves as a lush, visual substitute for character development. First time that I felt sympathetic for Karenin and thought Anna was an annoying drama queen. I actually like Keira Knightley, but her performance felt like a Chanel commercial meets The Duchess: the Russian edition. Her acting limits are beginning to show whereas Jude Law seems to be getting stronger and shows that he is more than a pretty boy, which I always knew. He transmits patience, love and sacrifice even at his most rigid enforcement of the rules. After Jude Law, the actors who played Levin and Kitty managed to feel transcendent towards the end when they portrayed simple emotion by showing how one should act in response to sin: need comes before respectability-think Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. Ruth Wilson, best known as a genius killer in Luther, and Emily Watson are wasted. Steve Evets appears briefly as one of Levin’s former serfs in a humble, simple and elegant performance. Evets is best known as the disreputable congregant in Rev. I demand that if there is another adaptation of Anna Karenina, it must be made by a Russian filmmaker and be in Russian. I’m tired of British accents being used as a substitute for all accents. The film attempts to emphasize gender inequities, but largely fails. Skip it unless you’re a huge Jude Law fan.