::: BEAUTY LIVE IN THE WORLD :::

In my opinion there are two film critics in America, Stephen Hunter who won a Pulitzer Prize for his criticism, and Roger Ebert. One of the things great critics require is gravitas, which is generally achieved by age and seeing one heck of a lot of films and have a vast and wide ranging knowledge of the finer things of life.

For example, on his criticism of The Last Station, the story of ups and downs of the aging Leo Tolstoy and his wife, he quotes the remarkable story of a publisher who goes off to ask James Joyce’s wife to secure the rights to Ulysses. The publisher is reported to have said “Nora, you have a brilliant husband” to which she responded “You don’t have to live with the bloody fool”.

Both Tolstoy and Joyce in completely different ways were much larger than life and tended to dwarf all those

around them except Tolstoy waged a battle of love and non-understanding with his wife the countess Sofya.

Says Roger Ebert, “The Last Station focuses on the last year of Count Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer), a full-bearded Shakespearian figure presiding over a household of intrigues. The chief schemer is Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), his intense follower, who idealistically believes Tolstoy should leave his literary fortune to the Russian people. It’s just the sort of idea that Tolstoy might seize upon in his utopian zeal. Sofya (Helen Mirren), on behalf of herself and her children, is livid.

Chertkov, the quasi-leader of Tolstoy’s quasi-cult, hires a young man named Valentin (James McAvoy) to become the count’s private secretary.

In this capacity, he is to act as a double agent, observing moments between Leo and Sofya when Chertkov would not be welcome.

It might be hard for us to understand how seriously Tolstoy was taken at the time.

To call him comparable in stature to Gandhi would not be an exaggeration, and indeed Gandhi adopted many of his ideas. Tolstoy in his 82nd year remained active and robust, but everyone knew his end might be approaching, and the Russian equivalent of paparazzi and gossips lurked in the neighbourhood.

The Last Station has the look of a Merchant-Ivory film, with the pastoral setting, the dashing costumer, the meals taken on lawns.

But did Merchant and Ivory ever deal with such a demonstrative family? If the British are known for suppressing their emotions, the Russians seem to bellow their whims. If a British woman in Merchant-Ivory land desires sex, she bestows a significant glance in the candlelight. Sofya clucks like a chicken to arouse old Leo’s rooster.

The dramatic movement in the film takes place mostly within Valentin, who joins the household already an acolyte of Tolstoy. Young and handsome, he says he is celibate. Sofya has him pegged as gay, but Masha (Kerry Condon), a nubile Tolstoyian, pegs him otherwise.

Valentin also takes note that Tolstoy, like many charismatic leaders, exempts himself from his own teachings.

Some women are simply sexy forever. Mirren is a woman like that. She’s 64. As she enters her 70s, we will begin to develop a fondness for sexy septuagenarians.

Mirren and Plummer make Leo and Sofya Tolstoy more vital than you might expect in a historical picture.

Giamatti has a specialty in a specialty in seeming to be up to something, and McAvoy and Condon take on a glow from f e e l i n g noble while sinning. In real life, I learn, To l s t oy provided Sofya with more unpleasant sunset years, but could we stand to see Mirren treated like that?" Mirren was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress as well as a Golden Globe.