Dir: Michael Hoffman / Germany / Russia / UK / 2009 / 112 mins /Cert: 15A
Starring: Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer, Paul Giamatti, James McAvoy, Kerry Condon and Anne-Marie Duff.
Language: English
A stellar cast and genuinely fascinating subject matter make this fictionalised account of the final days of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy an engrossing watch. Since the year is 1910, it’s almost surprising to see the great man (a suitably imposing Christopher Plummer) treated as a multi-media celebrity, yet reporters and newsreel cameramen dog his steps, covering the ongoing dispute between Sofya (Helen Mirren), his wife of some 46 years, and the Tolstoyan political movement that’s contesting the valuable publishing rights for War and Peace.
Each side seeks to use Tolstoy’s new secretary (James McAvoy) to discover what the old man’s really thinking, yet the elderly author is just as interested in this earnest young man’s romantic misadventures.
Riverbank Shorts Season
All shorts will be screened before the Monday feature film
The Stone Picker
Directed by Francis Gorman/Written by James Dardis
This short last laugh tale set in 1950s Ireland centres on the friction between Johnny O’Driscol, a hard-working stone picker and his employer Miss Mackey, a bitter old battle-axe. After years of mistreatment, Johnny finally gets his revenge in this must-see short.
