Tolstoy film gets thumbs down
Sarah Payne
Issue date: 3/10/10 Section: Entertainment
3/10/10 - "The Last Station," a film directed and written by Michael Hoffman, follows Russian author Leo Tolstoy in his last days. Unfortunately, "The Last Station" is more about the drama between the people who love and admire Tolstoy than about Tolstoy himself, played by Christopher Plummer.
The "Tolstoyan Movement" is a political and social movement started by Tolstoy and organized with the help of Vladimir Chertkov, played by Paul Giamatti. It's all about universal love and consists of a rejection of private property and material possessions.
Valentin Bulgakov, played by James McAvoy, is hired to stay at the Tolstoyan commune and work as Tolstoy's personal assistant. Valentin is a strict Tolstoyan, which means he worships Tolstoy's writing and is celibate.
As he becomes more familiar with the dynamics of the commune and the relationship between Tolstoy and his wife Sofya, played by Helen Mirren, Valentin realizes that being part of the Tolstoyan movement is not so black and white.
The central conflict at the heart of "The Last Station" is between the Tolstoyan movement, which seeks to make all of Tolstoy's writing public after his death, and Sofya. Everyone involved in the movement perceives Sofya as a dramatic and silly woman simply because she disagrees with some of Tolstoy's ideas. I have a hard time buying into the way Sofya is villainized by Vladimir and even her own daughter, Sasha.
Mirren plays Sofya in a way that makes her out to be a woman who loves the man Tolstoy, but is frustrated by the political activist Tolstoy. And what is wrong with that? A clear dichotomy is made in the film between living for love and living for the progression of the Tolstoyan movement. Both Tolstoy and Valentin are forced to choose between these two.
The tension between love and the social movement makes for an extremely slow and boring film. To be fair, all of the actors deliver quality performances, except for an extremely tedious and drawn-out death scene at the end. The problem isn't the actors-it's the story. There is not one single character focused on deeply enough in the film that the audience can empathize with.
Most frustrating of all is that Tolstoy has barely any lines. I didn't learn anything about Tolstoy's character by watching this film. In fact, he could be taken out of the film entirely and it wouldn't make much difference. We definitely need to know something about his character to understand why all of these other people are arguing about the significance of his work.
Don't go see this film if you're a big Tolstoy fan. Don't go see this film if you want any type of excitement. I think it's safe to say, just don't go see this film.
The "Tolstoyan Movement" is a political and social movement started by Tolstoy and organized with the help of Vladimir Chertkov, played by Paul Giamatti. It's all about universal love and consists of a rejection of private property and material possessions.
Valentin Bulgakov, played by James McAvoy, is hired to stay at the Tolstoyan commune and work as Tolstoy's personal assistant. Valentin is a strict Tolstoyan, which means he worships Tolstoy's writing and is celibate.
As he becomes more familiar with the dynamics of the commune and the relationship between Tolstoy and his wife Sofya, played by Helen Mirren, Valentin realizes that being part of the Tolstoyan movement is not so black and white.
The central conflict at the heart of "The Last Station" is between the Tolstoyan movement, which seeks to make all of Tolstoy's writing public after his death, and Sofya. Everyone involved in the movement perceives Sofya as a dramatic and silly woman simply because she disagrees with some of Tolstoy's ideas. I have a hard time buying into the way Sofya is villainized by Vladimir and even her own daughter, Sasha.
Mirren plays Sofya in a way that makes her out to be a woman who loves the man Tolstoy, but is frustrated by the political activist Tolstoy. And what is wrong with that? A clear dichotomy is made in the film between living for love and living for the progression of the Tolstoyan movement. Both Tolstoy and Valentin are forced to choose between these two.
The tension between love and the social movement makes for an extremely slow and boring film. To be fair, all of the actors deliver quality performances, except for an extremely tedious and drawn-out death scene at the end. The problem isn't the actors-it's the story. There is not one single character focused on deeply enough in the film that the audience can empathize with.
Most frustrating of all is that Tolstoy has barely any lines. I didn't learn anything about Tolstoy's character by watching this film. In fact, he could be taken out of the film entirely and it wouldn't make much difference. We definitely need to know something about his character to understand why all of these other people are arguing about the significance of his work.
Don't go see this film if you're a big Tolstoy fan. Don't go see this film if you want any type of excitement. I think it's safe to say, just don't go see this film.
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