The Last Station

2009
R
1h 52m

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

19K

YOUR RATING

Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer in The Last Station (2009)

A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.

Play trailer2:06

9 Videos

99+ Photos

Period Drama Biography Drama Romance

A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer's) struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer's) struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.A historical drama that illustrates Russian author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer's) struggle to balance fame and wealth with his commitment to a life devoid of material things.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

19K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 5 wins & 18 nominations total

Trivia
Marks the first joint venture of real-life spouses James McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff on a feature film. While still married they would appear together in several episodes of Shameless (2004) and after divorcing they would both have their voices in the animated series Watership Down (2018) and appear in His Dark Materials (2019).

Goofs
Early in the film one of the characters refers to "flashbulbs," when there was no such thing in 1910 and in fact later in the film photographers are shown using trays of flash powder.

Quotes
Leo Tolstoy: "Your youth and your desire for happiness reminds me cruelly of my age and the impossibility of happiness for me." When I was courting Sofya, she was so young and pure, it seemed impossible that I'd ever have her. I didn't want to tell her how I felt and I wanted to tell her nothing else. So I wrote down a string of letters and asked her if she could decipher them. She looked completely confused, thinking it was a game or... I gave her one clue. The firs two Y's, I said, stand for "your youth" and then the most miraculous thing happened. She simply spoke the phrase, my phrase as if she had read my mind. In that moment, we both knew we would always be together. For those first years, we were incredibly happy, terrifyingly happy.

Crazy credits
Anthony Quinn is thanked in the end credits. Quinn was the first to purchase rights to Jay Parini novel.

Connections
Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Lovely Bones/A Single Man/The Princess and the Frog/Broken Embraces/The Last Station (2009)

Soundtracks
Un bel dì vedremo
from "Madama Butterfly"
Giacomo Puccini
Performed by Miriam Gauci (Soprano), Symfonický orchester Slovenského rozhlasu (as CSR Symphony Orchestra)
Conducted by Alexander Rahbari
Licensed courtesy of Naxos Rights International Ltd.
Libretto by Luigi Illica (uncredited) and Giuseppe Giacosa (uncredited)

User reviews93

Review

Featured review

fizzy and vapid

Rather than present at least a GLIMPSE of Tolstoy's brilliance, Christopher Plummer depicts him as a one-dimensional, gruff, lovable old coot. He hardly has any lines throughout the movie, and the other characters are equally devoid of any depth. Helen Mirren's character is supposed to be self-centered and calculating, but even she breaks down into saccharine lightness at the end. The entire film is a descent into maudlin, pretentious sentimentality, and is only atmospheric, not substantive. Instead of being an accurate portrayal of early 1900's Russia, we are given "Russia-lite." We don't have a clue about Tolstoy's inner thoughts and motivations, because we see only an affable geezer. This was a squandered opportunity to reveal the mind of a complicated, social visionary. The director chose cute over interesting.