Alexandra, yes, i totally agree - I think all the many adaptations seem to focus more on the Big Sweeping Love Story but it's actually a complex story about family and familial love too (hence those famous opening words) and the love story in the novel is more about Kitty and Levin than about Anna and Vronsky, IMO!

Karenin is a very complex figure too - not just a villain standing in the way of true love, but a betrayed husband, as well as a loving father, but one who is also not above using his child to take revenge on the child's mother!