Anna-Karenina-PosterKeira Knightley continues to be surrounded with Oscar buzz for her stunning lead performance in Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina.

The film was released in the UK back in September – you can read our review here – and is currently on limited release in the US, with Focus Features giving it a strong position for the awards season, and will continue to open it wider in the States this Friday.

We saw a new featurette for the film earlier in the month, and now another great featurette has been released, with a focus on Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) and his remarkable adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s original novel for the script.

“The third collaboration of Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley with director Joe Wright, following the award-winning box office successes “Pride & Prejudice” and “Atonement,” is the epic love story “Anna Karenina,” adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard (“Shakespeare in Love”). The story unfolds in its original late-19th-century Russia high-society setting and powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart, from the passion between adulterers to the bond between a mother and her children. As Anna (Ms. Knightley) questions her happiness, change comes to her family, friends, and community.”

Knightley stars alongside Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the leading trio, with Matthew Macfadyen, Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Olivia Williams, Kelly Macdonald, Emily Watson, and Holliday Grainger completing the cast brilliantly.

Vikander and Gleeson are particularly memorable here, in that we are already fully aware that Law, Taylor-Johnson, and Macfadyen are all terrific actors, and it’s wonderful to see the young rising stars making a name for themselves, too.

Anna Karenina is still in its limited release in the US, and will be opening wider across the country this Friday, 30th November. If it’s playing in a theatre near you, I highly recommend seeking it out. It’s one of the year’s finest films, and I’m hopeful it will earn a handful of nominations come January.

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