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RATING:  
SINGAPORE - I guess I'll have to be the one to come right out and say it: The only way today's audience is going to be able to digest what could be perceived as an intolerably overwrought story about the great "War And Peace" author Count Leo Tolstoy's final days is to fill the movie with big name actors with the requisite gravitas. And you don't get pedigree like you do with the likes of Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy and Paul Giamatti.
Of course, it also helps to know a bit about Tolstoy's late spiritual awakening going into the film, about how he decided to spread the message of peace via vegetarianism, celibacy, and the rejection of worldly possessions on a commune in 1910.
His followers, led by Vladimir Chertkov (Giamatti), have nearly convinced Tolstoy (Plummer) to change his will, leaving the rights to his novels in the public domain, rather than leaving the royalties to his family. But his wife, the Countess Sofya Tolstoy (Mirren), is, naturally, opposed to this idea.
There's room for both drama and entertainment in director Michael Hoffman's too-sedate script, but he doesn't seem to find much of either.
Mainly because there isn't enough Tolstoy. You're left wanting more of a story about a "living saint" and his explosive relationship with his passionate wife as they play out the finale of long, embattled marriage.
That said, the actors save the M18 film. It's impossible to imagine a group of actors more splendidly suited to play these roles. When Plummer is onscreen with Mirren, the entire film thunders and lights up. Mirren of course steals nearly every scene in her Oscar-nominated role, while Giamatti and McAvoy more than aptly bring up the rear.
Thanks to the actors, the film manages to survive its potentially self-important melodrama to rise as both a tragedy and a farce.
- TODAY/ar
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