Love

Tolstoy is verbose and boring. Garbo is a bad actress and melodramatic. When you combine the two in a silent film you get something mind boggling, but that's a horrible kind of mind boggling.

The love scenes between John Gilbert and Greta Garbo are what make the movie. There is a certain magnetism there, strengthened by Garbo and Gilbert being in love in real life at the time. But the movie moves slow and there is not much else there besides their affection for each other and it becomes a rather boring experience. A basic Garbo love glamorization, if you will. But even with just that they are able to keep the movie afloat and with the American happy ending to bring a tear to my eye.

I've seen it with alternate happy ending:/