The Last Station (2009) Reviews

• 'Station' mixes farce and tragedy to fairly good effect

  Turfseer2010-02-12

  'The Last Station' focuses on the last year in the life of  Leo Tolstoy, the great Russian novelist.  Toward the end of his life, Tolstoy began promulgating a secular religious philosophy based on the Christian teachings of 'turning the other cheek' and helping one's fellow man.  He advocated pacifism and urged members of the upper class to attend to the needs of the indigent.  A cult-like group of anarchists, The Tolstoyans, headed by Vladimir Chertkov, insinuated themselves into Tolstoy's life and set up a commune of followers near Tolstoy's country estate.   The plot of 'The Last Station' is relatively simple.  Chertkov hires a young pacifist, Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy) to work as Tolstoy's secretary but in reality act as his spy.  Valentin is instructed to write down everything the master says and relay all garnered information back to Chertkov.  The Tolstoyans have high and mighty ideals about spreading Tolstoy's message but the leadership are a bunch of prigs, insisting that all members of the commune lead ascetic lives as celibates.  At first Valentin wears his virginity as a badge of honor but soon falls for the free spirited Masha (Kerry Condon), who seduces him. Masha soon grows disillusioned with the 'movement' as she cannot abide by their rigid rules. Tolstoy appears to be much more open-minded than his followers and laughs at Valentin when he admits that he's a virgin. Nonetheless, it's never really explained in much detail why Tolstoy is attracted to his 'Tolstoyans'. There's some talk about Tolstoy being impressed by Chertkov's ability to get his message out to as many people as possible. By the same token, Tolstoy cannot be unaware that his followers deep down are a bunch of reactionaries. It's his long-suffering wife, Sofya, who sees through Chertkov and his minions and clashes with her husband about her suspicions that he might be changing his will in favor of his obsessed followers. Her fears are realized when Tolstoy agrees to sign away all his copyrights so that the Russian people can read his books for free. This outrages Sofya, since she was counting on having the family receive the inheritance. Three quarters of 'The Last Station' is played primarily as a farce. Helen Mirren intentionally serves up an over-the-top performance as Sofya, the overemotional countess, who would probably be diagnosed today as bi-polar. While Sofya correctly sees through Chertkov's machinations, her emotional outbursts end up alienating her husband, who finally has had enough and decides to leave his estate. The last quarter of the film (the more serious part) chronicles Tolstoy's last days as he ends up the subject of intense media scrutiny. Buoyed by his followers along with his devoted daughter, Tolstoy is given lodging by a kindly stationmaster after disembarking from a train in southern Russia. Meanwhile, Sofya tries to commit suicide by jumping in a pond back at the Tolstoy estate. The suicide attempt fails and she soon learns of Tolstoy's aborted trip and that he's now dying. She races to see her stricken husband but Chertkov and her daughter prevent her from seeing him on his death bed. Finally, as he draws his last breaths, the daughter allows her mother to pay her last respects. 'The Last Station' is most successful in the scenes where Helen Mirren is battling the Tolstoyans. Two scenes come to mind right away: where Sofya falls through the window and rages against Chertkov as they plot to divert the family inheritance; and when Sofya fires a gun multiple times at Chertkov's picture. There's also quite a bit of nice interplay between Plummer and Mirren, as the Tolstoy's love/hate relationship is dissected in high relief. Paul Giamatti is one of the best American character actors out there today and does a fine job of playing up the comical aspects of the petty tyrant, Chertkov. But Chertkov remains unexplained—does he have any redeeming characteristics or is he a pure villain? (when Giamatti keeps twirling his moustache, we're inclined to believe that he is indeed the principal villain of the piece). James McAvoy doesn't have much to work with in the part of Valentin who's depicted as a Nervous Nellie who eventually (and rather predictably) joins up with Masha and leaves the Tolstoyan cult for good. One thing is for sure: Christopher Plummer can do no wrong as Tolstoy (when is Plummer ever bad in a part?) 'The Last Station' is well written but by no means should it be considered 'high-brow'. The idea that the well-intentioned ideas of a creative man such as Tolstoy could be so easily corrupted by a group of cult-like, anarchistic followers, is never explored seriously. Instead, the film's scenarists are bemused by both Tolstoy's followers and family members and view their machinations more as farce than serious drama. Only in the last scene, where Sofya expresses her undying love for her husband who has just expired, does 'The Last Station' rise to the heights of deep emotion. 'The Last Station' will certainly keep your interest from beginning to end. And please pay attention to the closing credits, where the actual motion pictures of Tolstoy walking around on his country estate, are shown.

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• The return of big cinema

  cliffhanley_2010-02-12

  The Last Station is described as a melodrama - and I would say that's a fair description. It's the kind of film they don't really make any more. The spirit of David Lean lives on. It's beautiful to look at, for a start, and the music is genuinely incidental, lushing away in the background. We all know that Leo Tolstoy wrote a book, although few of us have the nerve to actually sit down and get to grips with War And Peace. But there was more to the great man than that - in his time he was regarded as godlike, and enjoyed a fairly big cult following, the Tolstoyan Movement, devoted to goodness, purity and equality - as long as it didn't mean the end of the deferential lower classes. Tolstoy's young secretary Valentin is dropped into this, at the deep end. The 19th century Russian hippies, the fanatically devious disciple Chertkov who wants the great man to sign away the rights to his work, to the Russian People; the hard-pressed but manipulative wife determined to keep it in the family. And the girl who introduces the young man to the pleasures of the flesh. It's a great cast, headed by the unrecognisable Christopher Plummer, and the always marvelous Helen Mirren. The constant undertone in Tolstoy's saga is the disparity between his wish for a good life for the peasants, and the sight of those peasants beavering away in the background while the upper classes get on with their lives of pampered angst. It's the growing struggle between the disciple and the wife, with the secretary pulled between new and conflicting loyalties, that will grab your attention. You really will care about these people. And what follows is the melodrama. I will say no more, except that it's a big story, told big. Just what Norma Desmond told us we had lost.

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• Excellent Historical Drama

  J_Trex2010-03-03

  This was an excellent historical film based on the relationship between Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) and his wife, Sofya (Helen Mirren), during Tolstoy's final years. The film also explores Tolstoy's relationship with his Assistant, Valentin (James McAvoy) and his cabal of acolytes, lead by Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti). The main tension comes between Vladimir, who wants Tolstoy to bequeath his copyrights to "The Russian People" and Sofya, who naturally would like the copyrights reserved for herself and family. Mirren earned an Oscar nomination for Lead Actress and Plummer received one for Supporting Actor. I believe both were well earned. I liked the performance from the entire cast, particularly McAvoy as the adoring Assistant to Tolstoy. The screenplay was excellent and the Director, Michael Hoffman, did an outstanding job bringing pre-Communist Russia to life. The time period is 1910 and the cinematography beautifully captured the era. During the closing credits, actual film of Tolstoy and his Wife was run, underscoring what a great job the Director did in filming this. A great movie and well worth seeing or renting.

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• Wonderful film, this will go far

  jamesdelf2009-09-14

  I just saw this at the Telluride Film Festival. It was just fantastic. The story and characters are very well drawn and engaging. Tolstoy is wonderfully presented as a man who is aware he cannot live up to his own ideals. It shows how his image and words are corrupted into the ideals and beliefs of others who have lost their way. The acting, cinematography, costumes, all was superb. It is a film about love. The portray and comparisons of old love and new love. Love of a man and love of an ideology. Well done to all who worked on it. I hope this does not get misunderstood as a dry drama, as it is a very funny and moving film. I cannot wait to see it again.

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• A very enjoyable movie

  richard-17872010-03-03

  There is nothing to fault in this movie, really, and pretty much everything to praise. The script is very good. The characters are fleshed out and developed in complexity as the movie goes along. You continue to learn more about them, see more facets of their character. And they are realized by first-rate performances. There is not a weak one in the batch. The direction is also very fine. There is not really much of a plot here; it's more of a character study. Still, the director keeps things moving along, never veering into the sentimental or the cute. You grow to like these characters a lot, but there is no attempt to yank your emotions. My only very slight reservation about this movie is just a personal preference. I went into it knowing virtually nothing about Tolstoy's life or the movement that was developed out of his later writings. I would have appreciated a little dialogue somewhere explaining more about that. I realize, however, that that is not the norm in modern movies, and I certainly had no problems following what was going on without it. Viewers such as myself will just have to go read a book about Tolstoy for that additional information, which is certainly not a bad thing. This is not a film for the ages, a Citizen Kane or a Rules of the Game, a Potemkin or such. Still, it is a very well-crafted movie, one that I could easily watch again with no diminished pleasure. One that, as well, I can recommend to anyone who enjoys good acting and watching interesting characters being developed by and through it.

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