The Last Station
Directed by Michael Hoffman
Starring Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy & Paul Giamatti
Rating:  4. 5 of 5 stars
(Opens Friday at Norfolk’s NARO Expanded Cinema)

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“Everything I know…I know only because I love.” –Leo Tolstoy

I’m not sure if Tolstoy, the rigid father of fictional realism, would have appreciated a romanticized tale of his final days. But there’s no denying that Jay Parini’s novel makes a damned good movie.

Like the book, The Last Station balances fact and fancy while veteran actor Christopher Plummer delivers yet another profoundly effective performance; this time as the Russian novelist whose work would go on to inspire Gandhi and Martin Luther King with its philosophies of love and passive resistance.

Set in 1910 at Tolstoy’s Yasnaya Polyana country estate, the story focuses on the iconic writer’s long-suffering wife Sofya (Helen Mirren) and his wide-eyed new secretary Valentin (James McAvoy), both of whom share love and occasional antipathy for the difficult man.

Sofya served as Tolstoy’s secretary and editor, copying “War and Peace” seven times by hand. She bore him 13 children. But in the end, he was said to loathe sex (and worldly goods) and he expected the same from his followers, who hung on his every word.

In The Last Station, Tolstoy prefers spending time with his dear friend Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), the leader of the Tolstoyan Movement, in which Tolstoy’s zealous followers work to turn the man who inspires them into a revolutionary cultural icon.

Director/screenwriter Michael Hoffman delivers an aged Tolstoy who has become restless in his final years, a Tolstoy who is admittedly “not a very good Tolstoyan.” Still, Tolstoy deifies “truth and freedom” and remains an enemy of the Russian Czar, an enemy of the church, and according to Vladimir (Giamatti), is equally threatened by his “dangerous” wife.

James McAvoy and Christopher Plummer

But Christopher Plummer brings to life a Tolstoy whose abiding love for Sofya constantly warred with his desire to renounce her along with all the temptations of the physical world.

Her own passion unthwarted, Sofya fights for her former place in Tolstoy’s heart and attacks the efforts of Vladimir from every angle she can manage. Like Vladimir, she tries to enlist the eager-to-please Valentin (McAvoy) as a spy, and mocks Tolstoy’s entourage openly.

“You all think he’s Christ!” she says.

“No,” they say. But they do think he’s God’s prophet.

The central conflict in The Last Station is a battle of wills between Vladimir and Sofya, as Vladimir tries to steer Tolstoy toward changing his will to surrender all rights to his work to the Russian people. Sofya sees Vladimir as a manipulative, power-hungry sycophant, and Vladimir sees her as a greedy shrike who would compromise with the hated church.

In a subplot that nearly whithers away in the third act, a lukewarm love story develops between the virginal Valentin (McAvoy) and Masha (Kerry Condon), a fellow disciple whom he meets at the idyllic Tolstoyan commune of Telyatinki.

In his chemistry with Christopher Plummer’s Tolstoy, James McAvoy does turn in another solid supporting performance, in which Valentin’s passion for the icon seems more intense than his clumsy foray into romantic love.

As Vladimir Chertkov, Paul Giamatti also delivers with a relentless character that seethes with barely restrained angst. Giamatti’s short-fused performance is used to good effect by director Hoffman.

Helen Mirren

One of the few actresses that can hold a candle to Christopher Plummer, the habitually excellent Helen Mirren triumphs as Sofya, a woman who would sacrifice her dignity and even her life to regain the marriage she once had.

The Last Station is beautifully filmed for the big screen by German cinematographer Sebastian Edschmid, who evokes poetry with his misty morning shots of Tolstoy’s estate, expansive sunny countryside and deep forests of pine and white birch. Edschmid is equally effective with his naturally lit interiors, made intimate with his close-in use of handheld cameras and warm firelight.

Alternately humorous, infuriating and deeply touching, The Last Station is not so much fictional realism, as it is historical romance. On top of the stunning photography (and a romantic score by Russian composer Sergei Yevtushenko), the performances of Plummer and Mirren are resonant and deserving of all the acclaim they’ve received.

Like all the best historical fiction, The Last Station throws welcome light on one of humanity’s most inspiring and intriguing figures, encouraging further research into this man who believed that beneath all the poisonous trappings of religions and governments, love alone was humankind’s common denominator.