Review of The Last Station (2009) by Daniel K — 29 Jun 2010

3: Powerful performances from nearly all involved, but particularly from Mirren and Plummer. They are eminently suited to one another and Giamatti is wonderful as the wedge driving them apart. I'm not particularly attached to any of the characters, the places, or the story, but it certainly successfully transported me to a slightly altered world for a couple hours.

What was perhaps most striking for me about the film was how similar this world is to our own. Many of the events in the picture seem to foretell what will occur in later years: paparazzi with cameras and video cameras; phonographs that record the spoken word; social upheaval that alters the distribution of wealth; lawsuits and disagreement over copyright; worldwide fame and an obsession with intimate details of the famous; passive resistance; the flattening of the world; the acceptance of alternate forms of moral standards, etc.

Tolstoy definitely seemed to have lived life on the cutting edge to some extent. I found it a bit ludicrous how the story ultimately plays out, with he and his entourage ending up at "The Last Station", but it is indeed what actually occurred.

It's a period costume drama of the highest ambition, so in my mind it did fail to some extent in that it did little to stir my emotions. I expect pictures of this nature to bowl me over, as Merchant/Ivory/Jhabvala films like Remains of the Day do, but this was more of an interesting curiosity.

Still, it was highly effective, hence the three. It was also incredibly funny. I laughed much more during this picture than I do during most of the dumb comedies aimed more at my demographic. As always, the insertion of an outsider into the story was more than welcome.

Anne-Marie Duff was positively striking as well. I'll have to see the picture again to fully digest it.