"The Last Station" Movie Trailer Review

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

We get plenty of biopics every year--some work, some don't, and many go on to awards talk, sometimes long before they've even been seen by much more than critics and those lucky enough to catch them in small releases at festivals. "The Last Station," a biopic of the last years of Leo Tolstoy, is such a film. It's garnered some decent acclaim from those that have seen it, and Sony Pictures Classic intends to give it a limited release in LA this December so that it will meet awards qualifications. The trailer has recently been released.

So does it appear as grand and laudable as it's been made out to be?

Not particularly. It certainly doesn't look bad by any means, but outside of its terrific cast (Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti) it doesn't seem like much more than a romance that uses historical context to tell its story. I also continue to wonder why filmmakers bother putting so much time and effort into making films that are predominately about someone from another country and attempt accuracy at every level except when it comes to the language. I'm sorry, but if you're going to make a film about Tolstoy, at least have the respect to not have every character speak in a British accent.

Still, it's hard not to expect something at least somewhat passable coming from such a wonderful cast, and word-of-mouth is certainly good. I have very little interest its director Michael Hoffman, but I haven't seen a bit of his work, so I can't really say what he can bring to the table.

So, ultimately, I'm interested but quite tentative. The film is expected to get a wide release sometime in 2010.