The Kreutzer Sonata

I've read my share of Tolstoy, but it is hard to envision the novella from this thoroughly modernized version. Nonetheless, this was a very engaging film. Some of the things that were heavily criticized, I found highly effective, such as the voice-over throughout the movie. Danny Huston sort of underplayed the role, letting the narration and plot define the anguish of his character. And I cannot say enough about Elisabeth Rohm, and how she brought her character to life. Her portrayal of Abby did not always leave me liking her (Abby), but it always had me believing her. And this is aside from Miss Rohm's beauty, which was even downplayed a bit. The film's ending was telegraphed from the beginning, so you couldn't call it suspenseful, but it held my interest throughout. Definitely worth checking out.

Beethoven's masterful "Kreutzer" Violin Sonata inspired Tolstoy to write a short story of the same name. Incidentally, the short story inspired Leos Janacek to write a string quartet that is also nicknamed "Kreutzer Sonata." Although the setting of the story has been changed from the 19th century to contemporary time, the essence of Tolstoy remains. The presentation is initially muddled, but turns into a fairly interesting story about jealousy. What keeps this from being a better film is the inept direction. Director Rose did the cinematography as well and he unfortunately chose to use a hand-held camera throughout for no good reason. It is extremely distracting.

I saw The Kreutzer Sonata at its first showing at the Edinburgh Film Festival and I didn't enjoy it at all. I'm not sure if the dialogue was scripted or improvised but it was rambling and boring. It's not even an original idea to make a film based on the Tolstoy story and the Beethoven sonata which inspired it - when I searched for the title I found 13 previous versions, the first made in 1911. I haven't seen any of them, but some surely must be better than this latest attempt. The music sounded good, but that's the only good point. The acting was wooden, the plot dragged, the voice-overs were very irritating. I advise you to avoid this film.

Listen, I have seen 23 first votes that rank this film as a 3.7

The one negative review I saw was from a fan of the original novella by Leo Tolstoy; they made complaints about major points of the novella, including its philosophies and theories on marriage and sex, not being duly appropriated in this adaptation.

And I have to say that they are plainly insane to "besmirch" this film as to the extent that they have.

What I got out of this film was an originally filmed and paced independent film that wasn't annoyingly experimental. Its voice over made the film into a good unforced narrative with acting that was equally effective.

I loved the story, I loved the acting. The feelings of jealousy, suspicion, anxiety, and suffocation were so absorbing. I felt attached to most of this film. The acting was fluid and perfect chemistry. There are so many ways to act a scene. Danny Huston and Elisabeth Rohm's performances were some of the most realistic and enjoyable I have ever seen. At times the film felt like a documentary between the characters and the hand-held style.

I felt like this was definitely one of the best films I've seen in a long time. This is a wonderful ride with a great efficacy.

I really liked this movie. I thought it had a good story, great music, great acting, and was thoroughly enjoyable.

Danny Houston is very good in his role of a many who seduced and married a young women, had two children and now is extremely jealous of his young wife, suspecting she is having an affair. Elizabeth Rohm is outstanding as a promising musician who gets involved with Houston and ends up unexpectedly getting pregnant. The movie flash forwards four years and the couple is now married and have 2 children. Houston's character is now well to do and very successful but Rohm's character is very unfulfilled. She longs to renew her career as a pianist and she starts to tutor a young violinist. This sets the stage for suspicions and the story follows along that theme.