The Last Station Review

Messages: This romantic period film delves into serious questions about loyalty to family, country, and self; there’s also much discussion about the importance of loving and being loved and how that may be the path to salvation.

Role models: Tolstoy is almost saintly here, though only just. Though his love for his wife -- and vice versa -- is unwavering, he wrestles with larger questions that may supersede his family, much to his wife’s chagrin. Though she seems quarrelsome, it’s apparent that she acts out of concern and love for him. Valentin is the prism through which Tolstoy’s life and works are viewed, and his struggle to comprehend them is understandable and commendable.

Violence: Lots of loud quarrels between a husband and his wife -- they adore each other, but they can’t seem to agree on what to do about one major decision. A despondent woman attempts to drown herself in a lake.

Sex: A woman propositions a man she barely knows; later, they have sex (only her breasts are visible). Some candid conversations about sex and marriage and celibacy. The Tolstoys seduce each other with sexual banter.

Language: Nothing stronger than “tighta--,“ “bitch,” and “moron.”

Consumerism: Not an issue

Drinking, drugs and smoking: Not an issue