Boring account of people fighting over the rights to Leo Tolstoy’s literary legacy during his final year. On the one side we have his wife, Sofya, who feels they should be bequeathed to his family. On the other, we’re given Vladimir Chertkova, a staunch disciple of the author‘s beliefs, who wants them as the property of the Russian people. Somewhere in the middle is Valentin Bulgakov, a naive private secretary. What should have been a fascinating subject, namely a biography of Leo Tolstoy, instead becomes a tedious discussion of how the copyrights of his novels should be entrusted. Although none of the characters are particularly interesting, director Michael Hoffman has unwisely made Valentin the focus of his film. Regrettably his spiritual awakening at Tolstoy’s vast country estate, is the real subject of this bland coming of age drama.
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6 Responses
I disagree completely. I thought the love/hate relationship between Sofya and Leo was moving. For me, James McAvoys’ character, Valentin, captured me completely. I really felt how torn he was by both sides. Maybe not the best story, but well acted. I liked it.
How can everyone say that the ’41 was better? 1) The Wolfman in this film actually looks like a man and a wolf, the one in the ’41 film looks like a man and a dog 2) The setting looked 100x better in this film 3) The Wolfman in the 1941 film was a bitch and died from his dad beating him to death, in this film he was shot, beat badly by another wolfman, and had a spear thrown in him.
Oh dear, I don’t remember seeing a wolf man in The Last Station. That might have improved things considerably. Perhaps you meant to write this on The Wolfman (2010) review page.
Never heard of this one.
Really?! Christopher Plummer got his first Oscar nomination with this film and Helen Mirren was also nominated.
Hm. Didn’t know that.