The Last Station
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: December 4, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New YorkerDavid Denby
This production, directed by Michael Hoffman, is like a great night at the theatre--the two performing demons go at each other full tilt and produce scenes of Shakespearean affection, chagrin, and rage. Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The Last Station isn’t all that it should be, but whenever these two actors are onscreen, it’s like a great night at the theater. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterStephen Farber
Three superb performances by Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer and James McAvoy should have Oscar handicappers drooling. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
For those who enjoy actors who can play it up without ever overplaying their hands, The Last Station is the destination of choice. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
If you come to this expecting the philosophical depth and psychological detail of Tolstoy’s work you’re sure to be disappointed, but as an actors’ romp it’s delectable. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
The Last Station would have satisfied alone as a witty, manic lark, but as it moves toward the titular railway station, the film unfurls into so much more – a work of compassion, modulated mournfulness, and unchecked joy. Read full review
88
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
A stop any literary-minded movie-goer will want to make. Read full review
88
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
It is edifying, it is emotionally engaging, it is embraceable. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Every second Helen Mirren is on-screen in The Last Station is a study in peerless talent. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Helen Mirren outdoes even her Oscar-winning performance in "The Queen" with her tour de force as Countess Sofya Tolstoy in Michael Hoffman's delightful The Last Station. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Set exactly a century ago, The Last Station is a droll tragicomedy starring those battling Tolstoys, whose family is unhappy in its own way. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
The movie’s a chocolate box of nougaty performances, from Christopher Plummer’s delightful depiction of Tolstoy as a ribald old naïf to Paul Giamatti twirling his waxed mustache and playing to the gallery as Vladimir Chertkov. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe Williams
As they build up steam, two powerful actors keep us wondering whether this train is bound for war or peace. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A grandly entertaining historical drama. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Solid middlebrow biographical fare in which meaty roles are acted to the hilt by a cast more than ready for the feast. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The entire film is a seduction, one that draws us into a vanished world where Count Leo Tolstoy and his wife of 48 years, Countess Sofya, come to joyous, tempestuous life in a matched pair of magnificent performances by Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
Never miss a chance to see Helen Mirren. You certainly could do worse as far as movie advice goes. Mirren may not be the only reason to see The Last Station, about the final year of Leo Tolstoy's long, eventful life, but she's the best reason. Read full review
80
EmpireStaff (Not credited)
Handsome, engrossing, frequently very funny for a literary bio drama, and ultimately deeply moving, with pitch-perfect performances from one and all. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The movie seemed a disappointment at first, until I decided I was missing the point: It’s actually a drama about the way people treat a celebrity – with fear or reverence, as a source of income or reflected glory– and the way their own personalities change around him, while his stays the same. In that way, the film’s a small triumph. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The film itself, energetically directed and written by Michael Hoffman, can't always rise to the level of its two dynamo stars. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's fascinating to see how life imitates art; the closing months of Tolstoy's life read like something he might have penned. One need not be familiar with "War and Peace," "Anna Karenina," or anything else written by the Russian great to appreciate the movie, however. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Some women are simply sexy forever. Helen Mirren is a woman like that. She's 64. As she enters her 70s, we'll begin to develop a fondness for sexy septuagenarians. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Tells the story of Leo Tolstoy's last year from a refreshing new perspective. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Giamatti, in fact, makes off with a few scenes as the literally mustache-twirling antagonist, providing some welcome moments of over-the-top levity. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Literature lasts, but sometimes, The Last Station suggests, the ties that bind last, too. Read full review
70
Village VoiceElla Taylor
Tolstoy fought a love-hate war with his bipolar wife, Sonya, and thank God for that, since it allows Helen Mirren, basically playing a cross between Ibsen drama queen Hedda Gabler and the little squirrel from "A Doll's House," to waltz away with the movie. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Slides gracefully between comedy and pathos (it aims for tragedy, but doesn't quite get there). Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
The tony cast emotes like mad, but polished Brits are so temperamentally unlike Russians that every four-syllable patronymic sounds like iambic pentameter. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubSam Adams
Little more than a gilded trifle, though it offers its share of light enjoyments. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
At its best, The Last Station vividly illustrates the enduring Russian gift for iconography, whether spiritual, secular or something in between. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Though it feels at first like a musty edition of "Masterpiece Theatre," Michael Hoffman's adaptation of a novel by Jay Parini holds enough surprises to make a memorable impact. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Fitfully interesting, occasionally cringe-worthy, this is the sort of stagy production that mixes ribaldry and campy overacting that evokes summer theatre productions. Read full review
40
Time OutNick Schager
Working with uneven material, the illustrious cast is too often stranded in a realm of tony, high-art camp. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The kind of movie that gives literature a bad name. Not because it undermines the dignity of a great writer and his work, but because it is so self-consciously eager to flaunt its own gravity and good taste. Read full review
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