THE LAST STATION

Ma's View:

I LOVED this movie!!  We saw it over a month ago before setting off on a trip to Western Qld, hence the late entry of this blog.


Of course, any historical or literary drama gets me in but this has the added dimension of authenticity - set in 1910 pre-revolutionary Russia, tracing the final months in the life of Leo Tolstoy as recounted in the novel by Jay Parini, but obviously recorded originally in word for word detail by his devoted followers.  Director Michael Hoffman has assembled an all-star cast - Chriostopher Plummer makes a venerable, ironic and humourous Tolstoy while Helen Mirren is superb as his beloved and embattled wife, Sofya, at various times imperious, hysterical, dignified and delightfully seductive.  Their tumultuous relationship is central to the story and the drama of the situation;  Tolstoy is torn between his beliefs that he should renounce all worldly possessions and his wife's firm commitment that he should NOT sign away the family's inheritance, especially as she had worked collaboratively with him on so many of his  early masterpieces.  Clearly theirs has been a long-term and passionate relationship (she has born him no less than 13 children!) and the conflict that develops between him, his wife and his devotees is rivetting.  Paul Giamatti is excellent as Tolstoy's  chief advisor and devotee, Vladimir Chertkov, trying to out-manoeuvre Sofya, even to the point of placing a new secretary to Tolstoy expressly to spy upon her.  Played by James McAvoy with somewhat overdone gaucheness and devotion, this young secretary, Valentin Bulgakov, comes to feel sympathy for both husband and wife.  The dilemma he finds himself in is somewhat similar to that of the viewers - should the works of this great man remain forever the property of the Russian people or should they simply be part of Tolstoy's (seemingly already substantial) estate and be passed to his children?  It is a tribute to the performance of both the main protagonists that we find these questions hard to answer.  For myself, I was very relieved to read that the document signed so clandestinely in the forest was overturned some years later and the ownership of his works was returned to the family!


I should add that the film was visually very pleasing as well - filmed in Germany, it captures the lush and leisurely world of the period.


MY SCORE:  9/10

Pepe"s View:

I agree with all Ma has said although I didn't enthuse as much as she has over the movie.  True it is based on real life events, true the almost impossible relationship between Tolstoy and his long suffering wife makes for rivetting viewing and of course the cinematography is wonderful and evocative of the time, the situation and the seasons.
However, what diminished the film for me was the assumption that I lready knew Tolstoy's theories and beliefs.  The lines in the movie where he says to his disciples, when they question him on something he said in the past and on which they have based their belief system, that "I have said a lot of things in my life" would have been more meaningful if it wasn't left to us to guess at what exactly Tolstoy wrote. The movie assumed we already knew Tolstoy's writings intimately.
The title of the movie refers to the fact that Tolstoy died in rooms in a train station as well as the fact that that was the last stop in his life's journey - an almost too cute concept.
The acting was fantastic - Christopher Plummer was rivetting as Tolstoy as was Helen Mirren as his wife. 
A great movie - wonderful cinematography, fantastic acting and a very interesting screenplay and I guess I am being a little over critical to find fault - but the movie just didn't grab me.

MY SCORE: 8/10