Director Joe Wright is a strong visual storyteller with a talent for period pieces. Having won lots of fans with his adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, he again takes on another famed literary work; Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Wright blankets the heartbreaking tale with lavish visuals attempting to soften the blow of the tortured romance. In doing so he also infuses this complicated story line with an amusing sense of theatrics you just don’t get to see outside of an old-fashioned stage performance. The result is an impressive film that, despite the off-putting and self-destructive lifestyle of the ill-fated Anna Karenina, still manages remain vibrant and beautiful amid all the tears and heart-break. It’s…