celtic_chief The story itself is fairly good, but I just don't understand that so- called 'actors' are incapable of doing accents. This is supposed to be about Russia, not England. The English accents make this absolutely comical and lowers the standard of the production. Sometimes you wonder how they got their acting jobs in the first place if they are incapable....of acting. And acting includes doing accents. I think it also reflects the level of acting coming out from England when they only seem capable of doing English accents. Was the whole world English at one time? I couldn't bare to finish watching this film and had to leave it about a third of the way into it, mostly due to the accents.I kept thinking it was set in England. Best going for the book.

Andrew Chapman The BBC made a serial of this in the 70's and despite the lack of funding that went into that series, they pulled it off rather well. So finally about the iron curtain had been taken down, the filmmakers could use the best scenery Russia had to offer including the Romanov palace. And you would have thought Sean Bean in a 'Sharpe' style uniform would have made it a certain winner. Afraid not. This is a story of passion and romance and forbidden love, one where you feel for the characters, get entwined with them and almost beg them to stop whilst wishing they could get away with there illicit affair. This 1997 version, I felt no connection to the characters and couldn't really care less about the 2 dimensional performance. If I had bothered to watch it to the end, instead of hanging on the edge of the seat to stop Anna from jumping on the rail tracks, I probably would have volunteers to give her a push. A wonderful Russian tragic love story, though the only tragedy here being this lot bothered to make it.

dixxiedarlin911 I disagree that this was terrible. I am a big time historical movie and costume buff, so I watch everything I can get my hands on and there is hardly a period drama I have not seen. I have also read the book. While the story line of the movie doesn't necessarily follow the novel, I am still sucked into it every time I see it. I found their chemistry wonderful, the costumes lovely and very period accurate, the music and cinematography fabulous. I have seen it over a dozen times (bought the DVD) and STILL never get bored. Sophia Marceau was a perfect choice in my opinion. She is classically beautiful, and the right combination of all the elements that made her character.....chaste wife turned star crossed lover, strong, confidant woman melted to vulnerable young girl. I adored Sean Bean also. I found him totally believable, and I fail to understand how anyone even remotely interested in period dramas could fail to appreciate this film.

Mary Kae "Anna Karenina" isn't quite a terrible movie. The scenery is pretty; the score, courtesy of Tchaikovsky, is great; and the attempt to balance the two types of relationships is a noble one. Unfortunately, "Anna Karenina" is a severely hobbled movie.The biggest problem, it pains me to say, is the miscasting of Sophie Marceau in the central role. She is never passionate enough to make us understand why she gives up everything for Vronsky (Sean Bean). Even during some of the more passionate scenes, she is still too composed and collected (Bean suffers from a similar problem, although not as severely as Marceau). Moreover, her French accent is seriously distracting. I admire anybody who can speak multiple languages, but it's all wrong for this movie. The wildly different accents destroy the rhythm of Anna and Vronksy's conversations, and it sometimes feels as though they're not even in the same scene. This, in turn, disastrously torpedoes their chemistry -- a fatal flaw when your entire movie is based on a hot, illicit love affair.Ironically, both Bean and Marceau have their best moments after the affair goes sour. Vronsky's impatience is the first time we see true sparks from the character; Anna's hallucinations, and the separation from her living son, are genuinely disturbing. The filmmakers try to juxtapose Anna and Vronsky's whirlwind affair with the slow-but-steady love that develops between rich Levin (Alfred Molina) and Princess Kitty (Mia Kirshner). Although the effort is noble, it has the same effect as the smorgasbord of accents, that of entirely destroying the movie's pace. It feels rushed and superficial in some places, but ploddingly slow in others. Taken on its own, however, Levin's story is far more compelling than the main plot's lukewarm attempts at passion. Wringing every last drop of psychological depth out of the script, Molina gives a wonderful glimpse into the character's loneliness, melancholy, and eventual peace -- you almost found yourself wishing the movie were just about this guy. As his love interest, Mia Kirschner is a total lightweight and her Canadian accent is as jarring as Marceau's French one; fortunately, Molina has enough gravitas for both of them. If the script had been better, he would have brought the entire movie into warm focus. As it is, the movie feels disjointed and rambling. Had it been better organized -- and perhaps differently cast -- we might have seen an interesting meditation on the various kinds of love. As it is, we see only a few bright spots amid a sea of disappointment.