Keira Knightley stars in Joe Wright’s stylish adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s painfully romantic novel.

Anna Karenina – After brief but efficient encounters with true-story drama and gritty action (2009’s The Soloist and 2011’s Hanna), director Joe Wright returns to literary adaptation and his leading lady Keira Knightly with Anna Karenina. Adapted from the 19th-century Russian novel, the film tells the story of Anna (Knightley), the wife of a wealthy official (Jude Law) who enters into a passionate, secret affair with a young cavalry officer (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Meanwhile, two other relationships are examined: one between a kind woman (Kelly Macdonald) and her cheerful yet philandering husband (Matthew Macfadyen), and another between the woman’s beautiful sister (Alicia Vikander) and her persistent suitor (Domhnall Gleeson). The plot is sprawling and epic, but Wright takes an unconventional approach to the material by placing a large percentage of the action in a specific setting: that of an old theater. The opening montage is astonishing with its elaborate set changes, intricate choreography, and stunning tracking shots. The odd yet fitting set enhances the theatricality of the story – scenes of Anna nearly collapsing over her lover’s race and dancing at the first ball are pure spectacle. It’s a shame that film neglects this technique in its last third and instead settles for murky, excessive melodrama. Anna’s passion transforms into heartbreak and embarrassment, yet the film has trouble portraying this raw complexity. Instead of displaying Anna’s ambiguous and hesitant emotions, she comes off as hysterical, confusing, and unlikable. This has nothing to do with Knightley’s performance – she’s consistently compelling and well restrained – but rather the screenplay, which fails to transition the story from love into pain. Yet in addition to Knightley, the movie is filled with a solid supporting cast – Olivia Williams, Macdonald, Vikander, Ruth Wilson, Emily Watson, and especially a funny Macfadyen are effective as the surrounding socialites in Anna’s conflicted world. Law and Taylor-Johnson are also impressive as the two men in Anna’s life, with the former embodying a stern, manipulative control while the latter communicates an uneasy but heartfelt ambivalence. The film’s cinematography, costume design, and art direction are also stimulating in their transportive power. Wright has crafted a gorgeous-looking and unusually staged adaptation with several memorable performances, but it is barely enough to counter the dramatic deflation that exists as the overlong story goes on. B-

Here’s the trailer: