'The Last Station' Satisfies History Buffs

With all of its faults, The Last Station will satisfy even those only slightly familiar with the works of Leo Tolstoy and the time in which he lived.

The script, I believe, is an historical rendering of Tolstoy's last years. He was a presence in the era of the last Russian Czar, Nicholas II, and he became a symbol of freedom during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union when his house, a museum at the time, was captured and vandalized by the Nazi armies.

Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) was married to Countess Sofya Tolstoy (Helen Mirren), a much younger woman who suffered from his loss of sexual desire. Tolstoy became a cult figure as a pacifist and opponent of the church. To the consternation of Countess Sofya, the leading figure supporting that cult, Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), got Tolstoy to sign over to the cult the copyrights for his monumental books, including War and Peace, depriving the Countess of enormous riches from the sale of his books. Another character in the film is Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy), who became Tolstoy's secretary and a spy for Chertkov.

The first half of the movie is extremely slow, but the action escalates during the second half of the picture when, in an effort to create a new life for himself and escape the clutches of the Countess, Tolstoy leaves her. He becomes very ill while traveling on a train, and the Russian press gathers at a railroad station as he deteriorates.

There are moments in the world's history that entrance the public, and the public loves to see these moments depicted on the screen, e.g., the days of Rome, the Spanish Civil War, the troubles in Ireland, our own Civil War, the days of the Russian Czar, and the early days of the Soviet Union. This movie carefully depicts an era with great attention to detail and local color, and the performances of the actors are excellent. Those looking for another Dr. Zhivago spectacular will be disappointed. Those interested in Tolstoy's life, however, will be pleased. At 4:30 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon at the Angelika Film Center, the show was almost sold out.