“Everything I know I know only because I love”
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
This is the quote that opens The Last Station, a film based on the novel by Jay Perini. The Last Station chronicles the final years of perhaps the greatest writer of the 20th century, Leo Tolstoy. Featuring terrific performances by Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, it is a simple film and slightly specialized, but gives us a glimpse into the epic life and marriage Tolstoy had. As the film starts the renowned writer of War and Peace and Anna Karenina has achieved an almost celebrity like status—he is followed by paparazzi, asked to bless children, and is the leader of a worldwide Tolstoyan movement, a movement of Christian Anarchism that attempts to spread the spiritual ideas of Tolstoy—mainly love, equality and non-violence—to the larger world. Tolstoy (played by Christopher Plummer, a.k.a Saruman) is trying to live out his final days in peace at the Yosana Polyana Estate, but is in constant strife with his wife, Sonya (a wonderful Helen Mirren) and family, as he continues to disown all wealth and possessions including his inheritance. Sonya wants the copyright to his books, therefore securing an inheritance for her and her family, but another character, Tolstoy’s right hand man and leader of the Tolstoyan movement, Vladimir Chertkov (played Paul Giammati) wants him to sign the copyright into public domain to progress the movement of radical love and passive non-violence. This is essentially the conflict of the story as Tolstoy is torn between two opposing sides, one side of him wishing to disown his privilege, power, and wealth; and the other wishing to love and care for his family.
His wife, Sonya, has never been easy to live with. She is drama induced, slightly manic, spies on Tolstoy, and occasionally falsely poisons herself for attention. She doesn’t like the way he dresses (like a goat-herder) and despises the way in which people look up to him (as does he). She causes Chertkov to remark at one point, “If I had a wife like you I would have blown my brains out. Or gone to America.” Chertkov on the other hand, tries to expand the Tolstoyan movement worldwide. He is the leader of a Tolstoyan commune a few miles away, but has taken the words of Tolstoy and transferred them into rules, essentially turning Tolstoy’s thoughts into a legalist structure. The commune therefore becomes a strict religious structure (ironic enough considering the works and thoughts of Tolstoy regarding religious structures) and we begin to see that Chertkov cares more about the “vision” of Tolstoy than those around him. Chertkov seems to be, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “More in love with his vision of community than the people around him.”
The main character of the film however, and entry point into the Tolstoy family, is a young man named Valentin Bulgakov (played by James Macavoy) who becomes Tolstoy’s private secretary. He too is torn between the wife and the Chertkov, as both Sonya and Chertkov use him for their own gain. Sonya wants information about the supposedly new will Tolstoy and Chertkov are writing up, and Chertkov uses Valentin to gain information on Sonya and her meddling. Also complicating Valentin’s life, is the fact that he is in love with a girl Masha, (Kerry Condon) a member of the commune, who is more free-spirited than its rules allow. Their relationship is another source of trouble for Valentin because sexual relations are not allowed in the Tolstoy community (testing his ideals and values), but really their relationship is a window into Valentin’s struggle to understand the words of Tolstoy as compared to the man himself.
Valentin is an aspiring writer and thinker who spends time with Tolstoy each day, attempting to learn from him, yet discovering a dissonance between the man of Tolstoy and the movement under him. As Valentin talks with Tolstoy about the influence his work, Tolstoy himself remarks that “I am not a very good Tolstoyan”
Eventually Tolstoy is so fed up with the drama induced by both his wife and Chertkov, that he leaves in the middle of the night to spend the rest of his days far away in peace. He makes it as far one of the last train stops in Russia before getting ill and spending his last days dying in this remote station (hence the title).
While the movie is a bit overacted and slightly too dramatic, what it presents most accurately is the disconnect between love and vision. Like Bonhoeffer remarked, every character is more in love with his or her particular vision than the people around them. The words of Tolstoy are made into a system and the system becomes more important than the individuals themselves. Tolstoy himself is merely used for his celebrity and power. The community and family of the Polyana estate crumble as each character ceases to love one another and instead focuses on his or her personal gain (Valentin perhaps being the only exception). We see the inspirational and progressive vision of Tolstoy preceding love itself, which, as Tolstoy remarked, is the highest meaning of life.
Another strong part of the film is the inherent fallibility of every character. We see the nobility of Sonya marked in contrast by her greedy and annoying personality, we see the yearning of Chertkov and his vision for a Tolstoyan world of peace and equality, in contrast to his devious schemes; we see the strength of Valentin in contrast to his at times, cowardice; and for Tolstoy himself we see the greatness of a brilliant man marked in contrast by his inner turmoil and his outward hypocrisy (Tolstoy, while living poorer than most aristocracy of his stature, still lives rather comfortably). Unfortunately, the film never delves too deep into the ideas of Christian Anarchism and spirituality that Tolstoy embraced, but nonetheless it is a brilliant portrayal of the struggle between ideas and their reality.
The Last Station is a true Tolstoyan film in the sense that each character grapples with the ideas of marriage, meaning, fame, wealth, and their own imperfection. It is a simple film, but aesthetically pleasing, thought provoking and with enough humor to leave you not feeling quite as depressed as one might, after having read, say, The Death of Ivan Illyich. If nothing else, it makes you think about the fatal importance we place on the “good things” of community, equality, peace and so forth which, really, mean nothing if love is not present.
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