Wright has said he did not wish to make 'yet another period drama', and he's achieved this, has explored something new, but at an emotional cost.

It's far from a perfect film, but Anna Karenina should be praised for its attempt to reinvent the wheel of stuffy costume-clad Masterpiece Theater for the big screen.

The look is gorgeous, of course, but seldom has so much aestheticization served so much heartlessness.

While even skilled filmmakers would have trouble adapting Tolstoy’s novel in a straightforward form, Wright attempts a book-to-stage-to-film approach and, for the first time in his career, stretched his considerable talent thin.