Movie Reviews: Anna Karenina, Lawless, That’s My Boy

Anna Karenina, 3/5

A God-defying passion rages at the heart of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (12A), which opens in Imperial Russia in 1874. Happily married to the noble Alexei Karenin (Jude Law), Anna (Keira Knightley) encounters the smouldering Count Vronsky (Aaron Johnson) on a trip to Moscow.

An affair follows which scandalises the higher echelons of an excessively mannered Russian society Adapted by Tom Stoppard and directed by Joe Wright, who previously directed Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Atonement (2007), the tale is couched in a deliberately arch style designed to emphasise the extent to which Anna’s transgression in betraying her husband and son plays out like a morality fable.

Indeed, some of the scenes take place on a theatre stage, with the characters occasionally pausing to create a still life composition; but while Wright has a valid point to make about the stilted nature of Imperial Russian society, the conceit quickly wears thin.

Knightley’s performance is nowhere as full and rounded as we might be entitled to expect for one of literature’s great tragic heroines. Anna’s defiance in pursuit of happiness against all the odds is more often than not portrayed here as a needy petulance, and Knightley’s turn is revealed as rather brittle when she shares a screen with the saturnine Law or the intense Johnson. Meanwhile, the idealistic Levin is sidelined despite Domhnall Gleeson’s thoughtful, subtle performance.

It’s an ambitious film, and Wright and Stoppard deserve kudos for refusing to offer the usual period drama tropes of broken hearts and frou-frou frocks, but the self-conscious stylistic flourishes here generate more artifice than art.

Written by Nick Cave and directed by John Hillcoat, Lawless (16s) is set in Depression-era Virginia and centres on the bootlegging Bondurant brothers Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clark) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf).

Anxious to prove himself to his adored older brother Forrest, Jack sets out to establish ties with city gangster Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman) just as the corrupt forces of law and order, represented by Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce), arrive in rural Virginia determined to put the moonshinebrewing yokels in their place.

Cave and Hillcoat have previously collaborated on another gritty neo-Western flick in The Proposition (2005), and here they again celebrate the outlaw as hero (the story is based on a novel by Matt Bondurant).

They take a lot for granted in expecting the audience to root for the Bondurant brothers simply because they are ranged against the law.

Jack, for example, makes much of the fact that he and his brothers are despised for running illegal stills, but given that the Bondurants are brewing moonshine purely to make a profit, and are prepared to kill to protect that profit, it’s hard to sympathise.

In order to accentuate the difference between the outlaws and the law they defy, Guy Pearce is rendered not only ridiculous but perverse — Charlie Rakes is on the make every bit as rapaciously as the Bondurants, but he’s also a sexual deviant.

The hillbilly Jack and Forrest are thorough gentlemen when it comes to wooing Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain, respectively, both of whom are woefully under-employed. All told, it’s a solid gangster flick, albeit one that lacks the subtlety of characterisation that might have made it a compelling human drama.

Adam Sandler’s movies have been more miss than hit in recent years, and That’s My Boy (16s) is unlikely to reverse that trend. Seduced by his high school teacher, Donny (Sandler) becomes a national celebrity when the scandal results in the teacher being jailed.

He also becomes a father, rears the young Todd (Andy Samberg) himself, and virtually ruins his son’s life. Years later, hounded by the IRS, the booze-sodden Donny discovers that Todd is marrying into a rich family.

Can he persuade Todd to forgive and forget, and help pay off Donny’s tax bill? While the humour is as lowbrow and crass as you might expect, it does produce some funny moments.

It’s no comedy classic, but Sandler’s irrepressible conman schtick eventually yields an endearing quality that makes this one just about worth your while.