Great Film Performances of 2012

12. Keira Knightley in “Anna Karenina”

Keira Knightley has done well with a combination of corsets and director Joe Wright. The pair originally teamed up for 2005’s “Pride and Prejudice,” which earned the English actor her first Oscar nomination. They reunited for 2007’s “Atonement,” another heralded period piece. Now they are bringing Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” to life, with a script by Oscar-winning playwright Tom Stoppard. But there’s a twist; this retelling of a woman trapped between her husband (Jude Law) and her young lover (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) in 19th-century Russia is filmed largely on stages, with set pieces moving in and out of the scenes and the actors moving in a stylized fashion. It’s a fresh take on familiar material—one Knightley admits she had some uncertainties about at first.

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Photo Source: Laurie Sparham