If you've read the book, you know that there are a few story lines - Anna and Vronsky, Stiva and Dolly, Levin and Kitty. Anna and Vronsky represent the tortured love story. But this entire movie is tortured, and that was the director's call. Joe Wright also directed Atonement and a version of Pride and Prejudice (a crappy version), and I disliked both movies. Atonement was particularly bad, and I would summarize the problem as style over substance. There was much camera work that was lovely, but that added nothing to the story - it distracted and frustrated.
In Anna K it's the same story. To cram in tons of plot, characters and scene changes, Mr. Wright uses the visual trick of putting the movie on a stage set. Transitions occur as people walk up a ladder and into a different scene, for example. This is distracting and crowded and frenetic. There are very few scenes in a natural setting, and those scenes are largely unnecessary. The camera work is also nauseating. There is a dance scene with much twirling and shots back and forth between partners. If you are inclined to seizures, pass on this. Also, this movie is choreographed. Waiters move in unison in a dance, dances are performed with elaborate hand movements and gestures, there is off-screen singing, workers in an office are choreographed. It's a bizarre mash up of a musical and a tortured drama. And it did not work for me.
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