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While the DVD Afternoon is on hiatus, I'm going to attempt to keep the blog going with weekly New Release picks. This week our pick comes from a guest reviewer, Videodrome customer Mike Hebert, who takes an in depth look at the film THE LAST STATION.
For film fans tired of Hollywood’s standard sequel and remake fare, a true original arrives on DVD with The Last Station. If one were to reduce writer-director Michael Hoffman’s wonderfully moving film to its most basic plot elements, then it could be said that it covers the final turbulent year in the life of War and Peace author – make that literary giant – Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer).
But to do so would be a great disservice, for Station is no ordinary biopic. Instead, it reaches for and achieves its greatness as a poetic meditation on love, at first appearing to be about Tolstoy’s 48-year marriage to wife Sofya (Helen Mirren). She’s been patient and loyal in the past (what else can you say about a woman who hand-copied her husband’s seminal work six times, after all?) But she’s become increasingly frustrated, for in his dotage Tolstoy has all but abandoned novel writing to concentrate on matters of a spiritual nature, namely a religion co-created with his good friend and legacy keeper Chertov (Paul Giamatti). To be a good Tolstoyan welcome in his very own commune, one must practice celibacy, as the physical body is unimportant and only an illusion. One must also practice passive resistance (Tolstoy did in fact inspire a young Mahatma Gandhi to name his second Indian ashram after him). And most importantly, personal property is also not that important. Tolstoy is ashamed of the success and personal property he has amassed, and wants to give back to society by writing about governmental and societal ills and distributing it to the people gratis.
Problem is, Sofya really likes her personal property, dammit! So much so that she considers the people that follow her husband with a Christlike passion complete morons. What’s this nonsense about sharing the Tolstoy land holdings with lowly peasants? Why, they’ll only drink and whore it away! And when it comes to signing away great literary works like War and Peace and Anna Karenina into the public domain, thereby putting the family fortune at risk, that she will not abide. She is willing to scream, shout, love, cajole, and fake-illness her way through anything with her husband to protect it. She is also sure that Chertov has helped hatch the plan, as well as a rumoured new will, and spends almost as much time screaming at, shouting at and cajoling him. Into this rising maelstrom arrives Valentin (James McAvoy), a young Tolstoyan hired by Chertov to help the great man finish his manifesto, but also doing double duty keeping Chertov apprised on what’s going on in the house between man and wife. The poor sucker also finds himself increasingly used by Sofya in her plots against Chertov. No wonder he succumbs to the charms of lovely young fellow Tolstoyan, Masha (Kerry Condon).
Director Hoffman, who has such diverse films as Soapdish, the 1999 Midsummer Night’s Dream and the George Clooney mortgage payment One Fine Day to his credit, is described in Station’s production notes as the most European American director working today, and I heartily agree. Not one of the film’s 112 minutes feels rushed, and the Russian countryside (shot in Germany by Sebastian Edscmid) is absolutely breathtaking. But Hoffman also knows that he’s not making a Merchant Ivory film. After seeing a tabloid report that she and her husband are no longer speaking, a disgusted Sofya shouts, “It’s none of the world’s damn business!”. You can almost see a certain Lindsey raise her water glass in solidarity. And when Masha introduces Valentin to the wide world of anti-cellibacy, more than the room gets the view, you know what I’m sayin’?
Of course, the script (adapted by Hoffman from Jay Parini’s novel) and all the subtext in the world is no good unless experienced actors bring it to life, and Oscar nominees Plummer and Mirren are two of the best. In a more traditional biopic, Tolstoy would likely dominate, but since The Last Station is definitely a double act, Plummer is content to offer sterling support to top-billed Mirren by showing both his avuncular room-filling presence and deeply conflicted nature (then as now, celibacy is easy to espouse, but damn hard to practice). And the Leo-Sofya relationship they play is sublime. Although their one big romantic scene has clucking-and-cooing On Golden Pond overtones, after 48 years it has evolved into a wary dance, staying out of each other’s way while knowing that their contrasting worldviews doom them to collide. It’s all the more poignant when viewed through the eyes of McAvoy’s Valentin, who is just beginning life’s and love’s journey. Add in Giamatti’s less-than-saintly keeper of Tolstoy’s legacy, and the power of the latter’s last stand, and The Last Station is a truly unforgettable experience. |
