Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on September 2010

If you’re hungry for a spot of middlebrow literary historical fiction, served by a superb cast, you could do far worse than this adaptation by writer/director Michael Hoffman of Jay Parini’s novel on Leo Tolstoy’s final year. By 1910, at age 82, Tolstoy’s writings had become considerably more political, giving rise to the “Tolstoyan” movement, a Christian anarchic utopianism that rejected private property. Chertkov (a mustache-twirling Paul Giamatti, providing dark comic relief), Tolstoy’s chief disciple and main schemer of this quasi-cult, is pressing the count to leave his body of work (and everything else he owns) to the Russian people. The countess is understandably and very demonstrably less warm on the idea. In the middle is the naïve James McAvoy, a secretary to the count and an unwilling double agent for Chertkov. It’s through his eyes that the story is told. And it’s a worthy, sometimes Shakespearean (or even Tolstoyan?) story, sumptuously filmed, about a great love. But the real reason to see this film is the powerhouse performances by leads Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren, two veterans who know how to be electrifying without overplaying their roles.