"The Last Station" Movie Trailer Review (Another Opinion)

By our guest blogger, Tim Cush

"The Last Station," directed by Michael Hoffman, is based on the last year in the life of Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist of "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina." Considering he is one of the greatest novelists of all time, naturally, there was a film to be made about him.

The trailer for "The Last Station" immediately starts off looking like it’s going to be a snoozefest. The film explores the last year in Tolstoy’s life as his family and his closest adviser of his devout following battle it out over the rights to his novels and inheritance.

It sounds boring. Still, judging from the roster of actors in the film, the performances just might make up for the seemingly lack of material. The first glimpse at Dame Helen Mirren as Tolstoy’s wife screams Oscar. The always charming Christopher Plummer plays the role of Leo Tolstoy and seems to be the film's comic relief, which it absolutely seems to need. Paul Giamatti plays the role of scheming lead advisor to Tolstoy. Then, there’s James McAvoy. He’s playing the role of naive secretary who’s sent by Giamatti to spy on Tolstoy and his family.

The main focus of the film seems to shift between McAvoy’s struggle between Mirren and Giamatti, who are both pulling him in different directions. It also touches on the issue of love and romance versus Tolstoy’s traditional views of celibacy, among other things. Don’t get me wrong, this film seems as if it could work on a number of different levels, but judging from the trailer, I can’t seem to figure out if it’s meant to be light-hearted or serious. And we all know those combinations can turn out to be horrific or unintentionally hilarious.

Fortunately, Helen Mirren tends to turn anything into gold and I am sure her performance will rake in some type of honor come awards season. But if this is a sneak peek of what’s to come, I would say it needs to reworked or just simply spiced up.

"The Last Station" will hit theaters in limited release December 23, 2009, and go into wide release early in 2010.

View the trailer for "The Last Station" below. Thoughts?