Light sport made of a great figure, Tolstoy in his “eccentric” later years of anti-materialism, nonresistance, celibacy, vegetarianism, or, in short, Tolstoyanism. Under the starry eye of the author’s new secretary, a battle of wills, including a battle over the literal will, boils up between his leading disciple and his long-time wife, the latter not fully behind the concept of giving away their private property: “You all think he’s Christ, don’t you?” It remains for the most part a spectacle of disinterested amusement, although something deeper develops around the deathbed. Expertly, if theatrically, acted by Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren, and archive footage of the real personages during the closing credits affirms the studiousness of the project. With James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, Anne-Marie Duff, and Kerry Condon; written and directed by Michael Hoffman. (2009) — Duncan Shepherd