The Last Station

People REALLY love Leo Tolstoy. Some of them disagree on who loves him more.

Nominated for:
Best Actress - Helen Mirren
Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer

This movie plots out the final months in Tolstoy's life, in which his wife battles with his followers over who should obtain the copyrights to his life's work - his family or the people. Paul Giamati plays the creepy-but-sort-of-well-intentioned fanatic. James MacAvoy plays the nervous innocent who learns to love and all that other stuff.

None, however, are quite as magnificent as Helen Mirren.

I love Helen Mirren. And she is amazing in this film, just like she is amazing in everything she's ever done (check out her badass-ness in BBC's groundbreaking police drama Prime Suspect). Christopher Plummer put on a good performance as well, all though he was much better in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, and probably should have gotten a nomination for that instead.

Overall, the first 45 minutes or so are extremely engaging, but unfortunately this movie swerves from its ironic, quirky beginnings into a blah period-piece melodrama. Still, I suppose it was better then some of the other crap on this list.

Eli