'All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.' Leo Tolstoy.
Is the tag line and major theme for the film and sums up how I feel about the film itself.
The Last Station tells the story of the last months of Leo Tolstoy life. The writer of 'War and Peace' and probably the worlds first paparazzi hounded writer.
The banter between characters in the first two thirds of the film is a joy to behold and you could tell the actors were loving it as well. It reminded me of the best sort of Aaron Sorkin script on The West Wing, flipping from humour to angst to love all in a manner of minutes. Each character runs a gamut of emotions and all of the actors do it with such finesse, such love that you wonder why more films like this don't get made.
Each of the performances; from Oscar nominees Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer (their scene when they are both trying to out chicken the other is an absolute standout); to James McAvoy's innocent writer who opens up to the notion of what true love really is; to Paul Giamatti's heartless Tolstoyan who is given a great reprieve and in a lesser actors hands would have been one dimensional but Giamatti doesn't succumb to that; are all first rate.
It's greatest accomplishment is the insight it gives us into one of the seminal literary figures of our time and does it in absorbing and whimsical manner.
My one problem with the film is that the last reel looses the rhythm's of earlier in the film and instead steaming to a wonderful conclusion it jerks its way there. That is not to say that the ending is bad it just lacks the finesse of earlier but will still make you wonder at the joy of love.
Thank you to all who were involved with this film.
No comments:
Post a Comment