The Last Station

A rather Oscar-baitsy literary adaptation that looks Tolstoy's autumn years and a larger story about the triumph of love over idealism and conflict. Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer), now in his old age, has become a hero in his time - a proto-socialist figure seeking to reject his fortunes in favour of philosophy. This philosophy (Tolstoyism) draws his wife, the Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren), into a power struggle with Vladamir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), a religious fanatic who seeks to wrestle Tolstoy's money away from him for the benefit of the state. Meanwhile, James McAvoy plays Valentin, a naive acolyte to Tolstoy's newfound doctrine of anti-materialistic peace and anti-sexualised love. He becomes a pawn who gets caught up in the games being played out between the Coutness and Chetkov.

McAvoy's character is initially an unwitting spy brainwashed by Chertkov, but his sense of independence (brought on by a passionate and physical love affair with fellow Tolstoyan Masha [Kerry Condon]) sees him develop sympathy for the Countess. Sofya is a headstrong and impulsive woman incapacitatingly incapable of calm in the face of being swindled out of her inheritance. Anyway, the events in the film play out without any grand concessions to narrative - McAvoy's character is infuriatingly passive at times (perhaps owing to the fact that he's a convenient fictional construct in an otherwise non-fictional story). The acting is the only aspect of the film that is ever allowed to truly breath - Mirren, Giamatti and Plummer are all excellent as real larger-than-life historical figures.

Of course, there's a subtext woven throughout the film to give it some artistic merit - being the battle between idealism and natural impulses. It's that great struggle of mankind; our ideas vs. our instincts, the construction of culture over the top of our baser nature and the corruption of love by ideals. As a story on the failure of Tolstoyism it's mildly interesting but at the end of the day it's fairly typical of the kind of self-important dramas that come out at Oscar time every year, and it's an obscure and mostly uneventful slice of history that I dare say will have little appeal to people unfamiliar or unenthused with the classic Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

DIRECTOR: Michael Hoffman
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Michael Hoffman, based on the novel by Jay Parini.
KEY ACTORS: James McAvoy, Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, Paul Giamatti, Kerry Condon, Anne-Marie Duff, Patrick Kennedy

RELATED TEXTS:
- The Last Station, a 1990 novel by literary academic Jay Parini, is a ficionalised account of Tolstoy's last year.
- For other films about real-life writers, see Miss Potter, Capote, Before Night Falls, Iris, Madame Bovary and The Life of Emile Zola.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Plummer) and Best Actress (Helen Mirren)
Golden Globes - nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Plummer) and Best Actress (Helen Mirren)
Independent Spirit Awards - nominations for Best Director, Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Plummer) and Best Actress (Helen Mirren).
Screen Actors Guild Awards - nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Plummer) and Best Actress (Helen Mirren)