THE LAST STATION : [6/10] : Michael Hoffman : Ger/Rus/UK 09 : 113m : {15/28}

The tumultuous last year in the life of Russian novelist L. N. Tolstoy is stodgily dramatised in this old-fashioned "prestige" picture, designed mainly to showcase two strong performances from veterans Helen Mirren (entertainingly full-tilt as Tolstoy's wife Sofya) and Christopher Plummer (crustily low-key as the gradually ailing scribe-cum-sage).
   With this pair in the leading roles, it would be pretty hard to make a dull movie – especially given the presence of Paul Giamatti, Anne-Marie Duff, James McAvoy and John Sessions in prominent supporting roles. But writer-director Michael Hoffman – whose long career (debut was 1982's Privileged, also the first big-screen effort by "Hughie" Grant) is more a matter of persistence than achievement – comes pretty close, as he turns in a competent but corset-stiff adaptation of Jay Parini's novel.
   The story concerns the bickering that marked Tolstoy's final days, as his followers in the ascetic 'Tolstoyan' movement (led by Giamatti's scheming Chertkov) seek to ensure the copyright on his books should not reside solely with his family. The aristocratic and wilful Countess Sofya resists all such attempts with stern but eccentric vigour, the ensuing shenanigans somewhat passively observed by Tolstoy's young secretary Valentin (James McAvoy) - when, that is, the lad isn't busy romancing a tomboyish fellow Muscovite-turned-Tolstoyan, Masha (Kerry Condon).
   Sergei Yevtushenko's lush, squarely conventional score and Sebastian Edschmid's heavily backlit cinematography combine to leach anything resembling freshness or vibrancy out of the enterprise – a bit of a problem, given the fact that the drama boils down to marital feuding between senior-citizens. Hoffman likewise handles proceedings as if he's directing a play rather than a movie, and given Count Tolstoy's oft-repeated affection for the Russian people, it's unfortunate that the backgrounds of so many scenes feature mute, picturesque, nameless peasants and servants going about their rustic business with stoic, bland cheerfulness. 
   Another nagging distraction is the way situations, personalities, passion and conflicts that are so intrinsically Russian are "translated" into an English period-picture idiom – a translation that's about much, much more than language alone. Only Mirren (born Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov) has some kind of Russian background to draw upon, which perhaps explains why she's the most successful at endowing proceedings with the appropriate depth and "soul."
   An Oscar nomination as Best Actress seems slightly excessive reward, however, especially as this meant the exclusion of the rather more deserving Tilda Swinton from Julia. Then again, the latter is just the kind of spikily confrontational, risky venture which Academy voters have always tended to cold-shoulder in favour of safer, duller, worthier propositions such as The Last Station. Or, as the man himself once wrote: "History would be an excellent thing – if only it were true."

Neil Young
28th February, 2010

 ¦ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, UK, 27.Feb.10 ( £7.00)  ¦