The Last Station
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on March 7, 2010 – 4:29 PM5 Comments
A handful of nice moments — most of them from McAvoy, who isn’t nominated — but one review I read called the movie an acting showcase more than a plot, and I’d have to agree. It’s a little draggy, and many of the characters seem written without regard for the era.
Mirren is good, as is Plummer, but it’s average work from each of them, and neither of them is going to win.
Sarah 50, Death Race 8; 20 of 24 categories completed
Share!
Tags: Christopher Plummer Helen Mirren James McAvoy movies Oscars 2010 Death Race
McAvoy wasn’t nominated for The Last King of Scotland or Atonement, either, and his co-stars were. I hope being overlooked doesn’t become his “thing,” because he’s been very good in everything I’ve seen (though I hated the Idi Amin movie). Eh. Still early for him, I guess.
I loved the part where Helen seduces Christopher into bed, though. It’s all very well to be venerated and godlike and celibate and such, but when Helen Mirren is draped across a bed with her mermaidlike locks spreading in every direction purring “I’m still your little chicken… and you’re still my big cock,” well, you sir, are a FOOL not to cast that aside, and Plummer clearly knows it. There’s getting off at Saintlike and overshooting the exit into Stupid, and the wise do not mix up the two.
I think McAvoy will join Michael Sheen as one of the British-but-not-English-and-therefore-not-part-of-the-RSC-type-Establishment actors who are wonderfully good but will remain overlooked. Ewan McGregor was heading down that road, but his part in Polanski’s Ghost Writer should help him to avoid that kind of obscurity. For now, at least.
McAvoy was the best thing, perhaps the only good thing, about Atonement, most of which I thought was just more of the dunderheaded usual from Joe Wright.
One of my best friends is a dude who fusses with stache-wax, so I was delighted to see Giammati make those choices.
I coveted Kerry Condon’s hair. And then that hat she sported at the end.
I wonder if McAvoy should start choosing his roles more carefully. The wide-eyed innocent (or, you know, the “Dr. Carter”) thrust into a complicated environment is one that won’t wear well. (See: Dr. Carter.) On the other hand, he does do more subtle work than the material looks to give him, so, all right.
Watching Mirren-as-Sofya calculate precisely what level of histrionic would play was a delight, however.