Anna Karenina 2012

First off, I'll almost always give a movie an extra star if it's scored with classical music. It almost forces the filmmakers to match the brilliance of the score and I have yet to see a filmmaker audacious enough to make a bad movie and then put classical music to it. So there's that. Amazing amazing score.

Then there's also the cinematography. This movie has style with a capital S. So many shots were just inspired. The light and shadow in certain scenes. Blurred out lights. Accented colors. Segments that felt like perfume commercials. Slow motion shots. Horizontal shots. Crazy crazy good cinematography.
And on top of that the crazy idea of setting this as if it's performed on the stage but in the real world. I've never seen anything like it. So cool and the fact that the director committed to it and I think actually pulls off this incredibly unique idea thrilled me.

Joe Wright's such a romantic director. The cameras gaze, the way his camera moves and the plots and subplots of his movies. He loves life and loves love. And that seeps through in the way he constructs his movies. You feel a director having inspired fun. Like someone discovering and showing off the different cool things you can do in filmmaking.

Maybe a half star off because of the plot or because some of it was convoluted but he's adapting a 200 year old Russian novel so it makes sense there are some kinks.
Mightily enjoyed this one