2009 awards season gets a 'Last'-minute entry
Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, James McAvoy and Paul Giamatti are going to try to shake up the awards season. Look for their new film, "The Last Station" -- written and directed by Michael Hoffman and based on the final months in the life of Leo Tolstoy, which premiered sans distribution at the Telluride Film Festival on Sept. 4 -- to be released by the specialty division of a major studio (with a slew of other art house contenders already this year including three more Best Actress possibilities) and opened in December in order to qualify for the Academy Awards.
There was some speculation in blogdom that for various reasons the film might not get an all-important release in time to play in this year's Oscar derby, but although the deal has yet to be formally announced, I hear it's happening.
This movie had an interesting strategy going into the season by choosing only one festival, Telluride, and bypassing both Venice and Toronto. Mirren and Hoffman attended and the gambit paid off as buzz on the street in Telluride was very strong as distributors started circling. A John Horn piece in The Times' Calendar section pointed out the 20-year journey the film has taken to get to the screen. Its success in finding a first-class distributor in the waning independent market (even without going to Sundance or Toronto) just proves the increasing value of being seen and heard in Telluride, as well as the sheer tenacity of producer Bonnie Arnold.
Part of the deal clearly involves an Academy Award campaign, but why not? Nominations and top reviews are certainly the game plan for "The Last Station," an old-fashioned kind of period drama with great production values and major league actors in top form that will simply be catnip for a good portion of the academy, particularly the still-influential veteran members.
The movie provides a great comedic and dramatic showcase for its stars, Mirren and Plummer, as they tear into each other with the ferocity of a Russian version of "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf." Mirren, of course, is a recent Best Actress Oscar winner for "The Queen" but it's hard to believe Plummer, who turns 80 in December and made his film debut more than half a century ago (in 1958's "Stage Struck"), has never even been NOMINATED. Interesting that Plummer, who starred in 1965's Best Picture winner "The Sound Of Music" among many other Oscared movies, was only just invited to join the academy's actors branch as a voting member less than two years ago. As a dying Leo Tolstoy he certainly will have his best chance at a nomination (albeit against tough competition), especially in a year where he also has two other high-profile turns in the animated "Up" and the title role in another upcoming December entry, Terry Gilliam's "The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus." His brutally honest memoir, "In Spite Of Myself." was published last year.
In addition to Plummer and Mirren, the film sports a couple of outstanding supporting roles for Giamatti and particularly McAvoy as Tolstoy's new secretary. Although acting would seem to be the strongest calling card for "Last Station's" late entry into the season, don't discount the possibility of a long shot Best Picture nod as well, especially with 10 slots to fill and a weak field -- so far at least. The film is probably too traditional to score in many precursor critics awards presentations, but it's just the right type of extremely well-made flick that scores points with older Golden Globe and Academy voters. In fact the Globes should be a key early target for the film's campaign consultants.
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