The Last Station 2009

Michael Phillips, At the Movies: It just feel like a lifeless costume drama. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The Last Station is a moving, fictionalized account of a piece of real Russian history, a tour de force for an actor who's in his prime in his 70s and 80s, and a real return to form for a director most at home in period pieces. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie has its evocative moments, but it's so rigged on the side of anti-intellectualism that you'd never guess that Tolstoy's late work inspired Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: A lovely quicksilver version of literary history, with the accent on young love that emerges unbidden, and old love that endures. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Acted beautifully by a cast you never want to take your eyes off, so as not to miss a tiny nuance. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Some critics have derided the central performances as scenery-chewing excess, but these Tolstoys are characters who demand histrionics, and Mirren and Plummer are magnificent in delivering on those demands. Read more

Sam Adams, AV Club: Little more than a gilded trifle, though it offers its share of light enjoyments. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The movie's a chocolate box of nougaty performances, from Christopher Plummer's delightful depiction of Tolstoy as a ribald old naif to Paul Giamatti twirling his waxed mustache and playing to the gallery as Vladimir Chertkov... Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: For those who enjoy actors who can play it up without ever overplaying their hands, The Last Station is the destination of choice. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: If you come to this expecting the philosophical depth and psychological detail of Tolstoy's work you're sure to be disappointed, but as an actors' romp it's delectable. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Isn't all that it should be, but whenever these two actors are onscreen, it's like a great night at the theater. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Director and writer Michael Hoffman, adapting Jay Parini's novel, lets the history play out, and this little-known chapter plays out nicely indeed. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Based on the equally entertaining, erudite novel by Jay Parini and adapted and directed by Michael Hoffman, the movie is at once a hot marital showdown and a cool political debate, a domestic War and Peace. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Though the cast is fantastic, this won't be the definitive take of the Tolstoys' marriage - but whose could ever be? Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: The message is clear, if you didn't get it from the rich acting: This is a film to celebrate nature and life. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: The Last Station slides gracefully between comedy and pathos (it aims for tragedy, but doesn't quite get there). Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: It's the most emotionally naked work of Mirren's movie career; she gives poetic form to the madness and the violence of commonplace jealousy. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Though all the actors try to expand their underwritten roles, Mirren is most successful. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Helen Mirren outdoes even her Oscar-winning performance in The Queen. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The arrival of a movie with as much intelligence and artistry as The Last Station should also be accompanied by the sound of trumpets. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Michael Hoffman's adaptation of the Jay Parini novel is a most affecting look at the twilight of a marriage and how its parties adapt to the dawn of a new era. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Tansforms Tolstoy's waning days into material worthy of one of his tragedies while simultaneously making a biting statement about how the politics of a "movement" often warp the underlying philosophy which caused it to develop. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Mirren and Plummer make Leo and Sofya Tolstoy more vital than you might expect in a historical picture. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Helen Mirren is a lusty, roaring wonder playing, of all things, the long-suffering wife of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer in peak form). Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: An actor can be 80 years old, but give him fake whiskers and a pair of heavy boots, and he'll stomp through a two-hour movie like a happy kid. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A fun, sexy romp about the last days of Leo Tolstoy? Believe it. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: It's rewarding for a film to render rarefied ideas so concretely, but The Last Station works best as a battle of wills between husband and wife. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Despite its literary pedigree, this stagy production mixes ribaldry and campy overacting. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: The story's a bit of a bore, but the cast is terrific. Read more

Nick Schager, Time Out: Michael Hoffman's biopic of Leo Tolstoy's final year filters its historical drama through a turgid coming-of-age experience. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Engaging performers all, but the movie's superficial flummery is slightly exasperating when the true-life events would have provided an even richer palette of ideas. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Every second Helen Mirren is on-screen in The Last Station is a study in peerless talent. Read more

Ella Taylor, Village Voice: This workmanlike adaptation of Jay Parini's novel about Tolstoy's last days, adapted and directed by Michael Hoffman, settles into a lushly scenic television drama, though with dialogue strangely located somewhere in the 1950s. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: If the operatic emotional pitch ultimately proves unsustainable (not to mention tiresome), the film is full of captivating details. Read more