AFI FEST Los Angeles International Film Festival 2009

In this thrilling comic-dramatic account of Leo Tolstoy’s final months, our Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer, in a magnificent performance) has renounced writing fiction, built a school for peasants and started a movement whose guiding principles are pacifism, sexual chastity and the abolishment of private property. His new secretary (James McAvoy) becomes the comic man-in-the-middle between two formidable opponents scheming for control of the authors manuscripts and money: the rigid Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) who wants to spread Tolstoyan doctrines around the world and Sofya (Helen Mirren), Tolstoy’s wife of 48 years and the mother of his 13 children, who proves her dedication by copying War and Peace six times… by hand.

–Larry Gross