Anna Karenina

I recently rented Anna Karenina from my trusty old pal RED BOX because I wanted to spend a Sunday evening watching movies.  I was never interested in seeing this movie in theaters because of Hollywood’s obsession with casting Keira Knightly in period pieces. I figured it would be another romantic drama with close ups of Keira looking sad, confused, in love and totally wealthy wearing badass gowns from said period.

This Sunday afternoon I decided to order Thai food and rent a couple of movies from the big RED Box.  I went with Les Miserables, why not, it's Sunday and I didn't see it in theaters either. Then the Anna Karenina poster seemed awfully similar to the period in Les Mis so I thought, why not?  Let's make it a period piece filled with forbidden love on a Sunday.

What a pleasant surprise the film turned out to be.  It is magical, unique and extremely impressive filmmaking.  I absolutely love the sets, the score, the costumes, the cast and the camera work.  I watched it twice so I could take it all in.  I have to give this Keira Knightly period piece credit for its uniqueness even though it used the worlds most highly type cast period piece actress.  The men in this movie do such a wonderful job with their characters.  Jude Law, Domhall Gleeson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his beautiful blue eyes and my most favorite Matthew MacFadyen.

I give this film a RAD! It is truly worth watching.  I do wonder if the producers might have risked casting an unknown as Anna if the film would have been much better received.  Because they cast Keira I think most moviegoers felt it was a "been there, done that" movie.

Wrong!  SEE IT!