Joe Wright’s new adaptation of Anna Karenina opens with a wide shot of a stage, the sounds of an orchestra tuning, and a curtain rising. The telling of the story that follows is immersed in artifice, much of it taking place in a fluid theatrical space with lighting and staging effects, and moving flats, backdrops, and scenery. What Wright and his screenwriter Tom Stoppard (who knows a little something about The Theatre) have done is not adapt Tolstoy’s novel so much as they’ve staged it, creating a fluid three-way dialectic between the page, the stage, and the frame. It’s a fresh and ingenious approach, and results in a surprisingly high-spirited picture. … Read More