Movie Review: 'THE LAST STATION'2009
Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy star in a surprisingly funny and lively film about the last year in the life of Leo Tolstoy
Grade: B
Stars: Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti, James McAvoy
Writer(s): Michael Hoffman, based on the novel by Jay Parini
Director: Michael Hoffman
Release Date: December 4th, 2009
Rating: R
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics has finally released a trailer for Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station, a biopic about Russian author Leo Tolstoy. Described in the promotional material as being a “complex, funny, rich, emotional, and true story about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it”, the movie stars Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and is joined by an all-star cast including James McAvoy as Valentin Bulgakov, Paul Giamatti as Vladimir Chertkov, and Helen Mirren as Sofya Tolstoy. I’m not a big fan of most dramatic period pieces, so I’ll leave the commentary to you (although, it would hard to go wrong with a cast that strong). Watch the trailer after the jump and leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Official plot synopsis:
After almost fifty years of marriage, the Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren), Leo Tolstoy’s (Christopher Plummer) devoted wife, passionate lover, muse and secretary?she?s copied out War and Peace six times…by hand!?suddenly finds her entire world turned upside down. In the name of his newly created religion, the great Russian novelist has renounced his noble title, his property and even his family in favor of poverty, vegetarianism and even celibacy. After she’s born him thirteen children!When Sofya then discovers that Tolstoy’s trusted disciple, Chertkov (Paul Giamatti)?whom she despises?may have secretly convinced her husband to sign a new will, leaving the rights to his iconic novels to the Russian people rather than his very own family, she is consumed by righteous outrage. This is the last straw. Using every bit of cunning, every trick of seduction in her considerable arsenal, she fights fiercely for what she believes is rightfully hers. The more extreme her behavior becomes, however, the more easily Chertkov is able to persuade Tolstoy of the damage she will do to his glorious legacy.
Into this minefield wanders Tolstoy’s worshipful new assistant, the young, gullible Valentin (James McAvoy). In no time, he becomes a pawn, first of the scheming Chertkov and then of the wounded, vengeful Sofya as each plots to undermine the other’s gains. Complicating Valentin’s life even further is the overwhelming passion he feels for the beautiful, spirited Marsha (Kerry Condon), a free thinking adherent of Tolstoy’s new religion whose unconventional attitudes about sex and love both compel and confuse him. Infatuated with Tolstoy’s notions of ideal love, but mystified by the Tolstoys’ rich and turbulent marriage, Valentin is ill equipped to deal with the complications of love in the real world.
A tale of two romances, one beginning, one near its end, The Last Station is a complex, funny, rich and emotional story about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it.
Watch the trailer in high definition on Apple. The Last Station hits theaters on December 4th 2009
