Leo Tolstoy was a genius, one of history's great writers. Sofya Tolstoy, his wife, is harder to describe, but she was married to him for 48 years, bore him 13 children — and made six hand-written copies of "War and Peace." The tale of the last days of his life, "The Last Station," which opens today, would be a hands-down winner in any scenery-chewing competition.
Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren play the loving–and warring–couple. Both are outstanding actors, and exceedingly histrionic as well. Add Paul Giamatti, as Vladimir Chirtkov, his acolyte and her enemy, and we're over the top most of the way.
Michael Hoffman wrote and directed, basing the screenplay on a novel by Jay Parini, and he gives his cast lines that can be spoken, or screamed. Unfortunately, there's just too much of the latter. James McAvoy, who starts the action by arriving at Tolstoy's estate, Yasnaya Polyana, to become the great man's secretary, is about the only person to remain under control.
Tolstoy is not well, but Chirtkov, his former secretary and now a publisher is busily trying to convince him to change his will to support a sort of writers' commune. Sofya violently opposes this; after his death, she will still have children to raise and her own extravagant lifestyle to support.
The film is a very mixed bag. There are scenes when Plummer and Mirren display a very special love for one another. And there are scenes when they rage like the furies. No self-control at all. This could have been a wonderful movie, but Hoffman let the actors take over the story.
Opens today at the Plaza Frontenac.
–Joe