Anna Karenina

"All the world's a stage," said the Bard. "and all the men and women merely players." Which is apparently why director Joe Wright's film version of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina is on a stage.

Anyway, Anna's (Keira Knightley) part on stage is to be married to the stiff and boring Count Karenin (Jude Law). One day, she meets the dashing and lively cavalry officer Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Thanks to him, she finally finds a reason to be happy. Unfortunately, her romance with Vronsky gets on her husband's nerves and causes a major scandal. By the end of it all, Anna's happiness just makes her unhappy.

To elaborate on its presentation, much of 19th-century Russia is built into an old theater. When it's time to change scenes, Sarah Greenwood's scenery is changed on-screen just as they'd be changed on-stage. Only on occasion, though, someone will venture outside the stage in the real world of snow and ice. It maybe an interesting concept, but it still took me aback more than amazed.

Its greatest problem is that it was just dull. Its characters, except for the amusing Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen), were too stiff and boring to care about. Even Anna, the tragic heroine, wasn't that much of an appealing character. The costumes and music, by Jacqueline Durran and Dario Marianelli, respectively, were much more lively than all those "tragic" people. It was so stiff and boring that my reaction, once it got to the credits, was "finally, it's over."

If people talking on and on isn't appealing for you, then do stay away. There's so much of it that it makes its two hour and ten minute runtime seem far, far longer than it is.