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Title: The Last Station
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, the R-rating seems a little extreme for the one brief scene of sex in this. Recommended for ages 14 and up. |
Leo Tolstoy is without a doubt one of the greatest writers who ever lived. He wrote some of the all-time classic novels including “War & Peace” and “Anna Karenina.” So influential were his words that they came close to creating a separate religion altogether. In “The Last Station” director Michael Hoffman looks at Tolstoy’s final years in his life. During this time he wrote nothing of great importance as far as I can see in this film, but was none-the-less filled with turmoil. We start the film late in Tolstoy’s (Academy Award-nominee Christopher Plummer) life, where his writings have made him lots of money and many devoted followers. Most writers would consider this to be a great life, but Tolstoy’s opinion on personal wealth are conflicting.
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He doesn’t believe the rich should have much while the poor have none and he wants to donate away his vast fortunes. This runs in contrast to his wife Sofya (Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren), who loves her husband but can not fathom why he would give away his families future fortunes to less deserving people. Worst of all Tolstoy plans to sign away the copyrights to his works to a trusted follower of his Vladimir Chertkov (Academy Award-nominee Paul Giamatti). What Chertkov plans to do with the rights to Tolstoy’s work is unclear. He claims he wants to protect them, but even I can see that owning the copyrights to “War and Peace” would make it so I’d never have to live in the poor house.
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All of this is viewed through the eyes of Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy), a Tolstoy follower who comes to view the situation with growing distrust. He was originally hired by Chertkov to find weaknesses in Tolstoy’s life to report to make getting the copyrights easier. As the situation goes on though Valentin befriends Tolstoy and Sofya, and finds the war for the rights to his written works repulsive. Even more conflicting though is his views on the works himself. Not to spoil to much, but once the kid discovers the pleasures of sex...well, that usually is enough to get anyone to question divine words I suppose. With the exception of the last sub-plot I just mentioned most of what’s in “The Last Station” works.
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Tolstoy comes off as likable but ignorant, and you can see why he was sometimes his own worst enemy. Sofya is portrayed in the media as being out of control and sadistic, but looking at things from her point-of-view I’d say she handled herself much better then anyone could have hoped to. If there is a flaw to the film is that the film isn’t as focused as I’d have liked it to be. With five major characters the screenplay jumps around a bit too much at times. Still, the movie is largely an effective story that has wonderful acting and is rarely boring. I think reading one of Tolstoy’s novels would be ten times more entertaining then watching this movie, but if you’ve got an extra couple hours you don’t know what to do with this makes for a great Netflix stream.
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