Word: valentiner
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...although the movie, while effective in portraying the complications of any life lived publicly, is on the whole less eloquent than its principals. It is structured on the belief that we need an expository guide to get the complexities of the Tolstoy's life, offered in the form of Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy), a nervous, good-hearted young secretary sent to the Tolstoy's country estate to help Leo with his papers. Valentin arrives as a pawn of the Countess' sworn enemy, the exiled Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), who urges him to keep vigilant eye on the Countess, whom he describes...
...enjoyed McAvoy in The Last King of Scotland, or Starter for 10 or even the absurd Wanted knows, he makes a charming tour guide of cinematic territories, whether it be the high court of Idi Amin, posh academics or sects of vengeful weavers. But enough is enough and Valentin ends up being the kind of guide who distracts more than he leads. He turns his metaphorical flashlight in our eyes, chatters on about himself and makes you long to slip away from the group, to steal some quiet time with the art - the Tolstoys - on your...
...life among the Tolstoyans plays out as a parallel to Leo's. Arriving at their woodsy compound, Valentin cheerfully observes that it's a beautiful day. "Yes, but we'll pay for it," says the grumpy Sergeyenko (Patrick Kennedy). Except for a carnal handywoman named Masha (Kerry Condon), who serves as a mini-Sofya to Valentin's mini-Leo, the Tolstoyans are too busy trying to adhere to their standards - vegetarianism, living off the land, practicing celibacy - to appreciate either a beautiful day or the fact that Tolstoy himself doesn't live up to them...
...source of dramatic tension, but watching a public man struggle to figure out his own best - and private - end is certainly affecting, and that's what Plummer gives us. By the time we get to the "Last Station" itself, the Astapovo railway station where Tolstoy died, Hoffman finally lets Valentin fade into the background and the focus rest on Leo and Sofya. What you carry away from the movie is the reminder that a deathbed is the place where the living stake their possession for the last time and then watch it evaporate in irrelevance...
Leading the sabre for the second week in a row was sophomore Valentin Staller, who spurred his sabre team to wins over Sacred Heart, 7-2, Penn State, 5-4, Princeton, 5-4, and Vassar, 8-1, with its best win blanking North Carolina...