#AnnaKareninaVronskysStory #HollywoodFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas

#AnnaKareninaVronskysStory (Russian dubbed in English with Subtitles) Rating: * * An all too Royal Regression. Anna Karenina made her choice, leaving her son Sergei to grow up struggling to understand why his mother took such a tragic and terrible path, and Count Vronsky was haunted by the memory of the woman for whose death he still blames himself 30 years later. The film though is a tragedy because of it’s atrociously casual American accented dialogues and delivery which kills most of the drama and renders the magnificence of the Eurasian setting impotent. #RGStudios #RakshaEntertainment #LeoTolstoy #MeghnaC #BazingaPR #ElizavetaBoyarskaya #MaksimMatveyev #VitalyKishchenko #KirillGrebenshchikov #MakarMikhalkin Runtime: 130 mins Hollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas An all too Royal Regression Film: Anna Karenina: Vronsky’s Story Cast: Elizaveta Boyarskaya, Maksim Matveyev, Vitaly Kishchenko, Kirill Grebenshchikov, Makar Mikhalkin Director: Karen Shakhnazarov Rating: * *

Runtime: 138 mins

This is the umpteenth adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel, a purely Russian attempt though and yet faulting and unsympathetic to it’s own cause. Leo Tolstoy’s literary classic was first adapted for the screen way back in 1911 by French director Maurice André Maître, followed by a Russian version by Vladimir Gardin in 1914, an American one in 1915 and a Hungarian issue in 1918. The most famous ones though were the ones starring Greta Garbo-Love(1927), an American version, directed by Edmund Goulding featuring significant changes from the novel with two different endings and the 1935 version, the most famous and critically acclaimed, starring Greta Garbo, Fredric March and directed by Clarence Brown. There have been many more attempts to match that cinematic high point but nothing ever came close. Not even the 2012 British edition starring Keira Knightley- which was largely hooted out of the theatres for it’s ridiculously overdone representation.

In a slight deviation from Tolstoy’s written word, this drama takes place from Vronsky’s point-of-view and it’s obviously an emotionally challenged one given that he is a man in an era where women were largely supressed and disallowed parity. As a married woman, Anna Karenina(Elizaveta Boyarskaya) had two choices love or duty and she tried to straddle both before she was forced to choose either. Given that she had a young son Sergei, she was forced to leave behind and an illegitimate daughter she felt too guilt ridden to love, there definitely was immense scope in this passion play, to make a mark. Sergei grows up struggling to find answers for his abandonment issues while Vronsky is haunted by the memory of the woman he loved and lost so tragically. 30 years later, In 1904, during the Russian–Japanese war, Sergei Karenin(Krill Grebenshchikov) and Alexey Vronsky(Maksim Matveyev) have a chance meeting in a remote Manchurian village- a fortuitous moment in time to reminisce and make peace with their troubled past.

While 19th century orthodox Russian aristocracy, has been represented quite succinctly in a lush background of aesthetic harmony, the drama of individual choices and consequences doesn’t quite come off in the manner Tolstoy intended. Director Karen Shakhnazarov’s effort doesn’t have the intensity or passion to make the events of the past achieve the gravity it deserved. And that’s mainly because, the version being released here is a dubbed one with subtitles and fails to evoke either emotion or sentiment in it’s favour. The all-too-casual dubbing in American English, in fact, destroys what little comfort there was to be had from the gilded production design and competent performances- Certainly not something that can stir up an audience in it’s favour. Johnsont307@gmail.com