An Elegant Yet Subdued ‘Anna Karenina’

“Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina” is not Tolstoy’s classic novel of timeless passion but rather a traditional British period film at its most solemn and conventional. Not only does Bernard Rose’s handsome, meticulous production lack that passion, but it also suffers from a miscast Anna, the married Russian aristocrat who risks everything for love in 1880 St. Petersburg. Alas, the film is almost as stodgy as Rose’s take on Beethoven, “Immortal Beloved.” Only die-hard romantics are likely not to come away disappointed.

French star Sophie Marceau can be a lovely and capable actress in the right circumstances, but she hasn’t the radiant, transcendent beauty and doesn’t project the noble soul necessary to bring to life one of literature’s great heroines. But then Scarlett O’Hara herself, Vivien Leigh, in a 1948 version of “Anna,” did not enjoy the acclaim Greta Garbo did, first in the 1927 silent “Love” (which was released in both sad and happy endings) and in the 1935 talkie remake, “Anna Karenina.” The irony is that the 70-year-old “Love” seems a less dated take on Tolstoy than this sumptuous 1997 release.

Although the incredibly ornate, authentic period settings are most effective in conveying the oppressiveness of the lives of Russia’s upper classes, we don’t get much of a sense of the oppressiveness experienced by the lower classes that were exploited to support such luxury--a perspective that one might expect from a movie released in 1997.

This “Anna Karenina” is certainly beautiful to behold, and it does have its pluses in its other performances. Sean Bean is a dashing Count Vronsky who sweeps the unhappy Anna off her feet. James Fox is a splendid Karenin, a stern and proper but loving husband whose capacity for forgiveness is nipped in the bud by the lethally puritanical Lydia Ivanova, played by the always-riveting Fiona Shaw, who brings to the film a spark it otherwise too much lacks.

In counterpoint to the story’s miserable triangle, Alfred Molina and Mia Kirshner represent a happy couple; Molina’s Levin also serves as Tolstoy’s alter ego, an aristocrat who learns to question the values and mores of his class.

Not all the classical music that “Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina” draws upon had actually been composed by the film’s time period, 1880-1883, but its use of selections from Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev is most effective.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for mature thematic elements and some sensuality/nudity. Times guidelines: some lovemaking, nudity, adultery theme.

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‘Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina’

Sophie Marceau: Anna Karenina

Sean Bean: Count Vronsky

Alfred Molina: Levin

Mia Kirshner: Kitty

James Fox: Karenin

Fiona Shaw: Lydia Ivanova

A Warner Bros. presentation of an Icon production. Writer-director Bernard Rose. Based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy. Producer Bruce Davey. Executive producer Stephen McEveety. Cinematographer Daryn Okada. Editor Victor Du Bois. Costumes Maurizio Millenotti. Music director Sir George Solti. Music supervisor John Stronach. Production designer John Myhre. Art director Sergei Shemyakin. Set art director James Edward Ferrell Jr. Set decorator Marthe Pineau. Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Westside Pavilion, 10800 W. Pico Blvd., (310) 475-0202, and Cineplex Broadway Cinemas, 1441 Third Street Promenade at Broadway, Santa Monica, (310) 777-FILM, No. 176.