DEAR JOHN HANDS AVATAR A GOODBYE LETTER

Exceeding all expectations, Sony Screen Gems' Dear John finally handed seven week Box Office champion its first defeat taking in $32.4 million.  The tearjerker confirms Vanity Fair's recent prediction that Amanda Seyfried is indeed a bankable star.  Although  recent effort Jennifer's Body tanked, her overall body of work including Mean Girls, Mamma Mia and now this monster, place her at the top of her pack.  Of course, I'm sure heartthrob Channing Tatum might also have had a small part in bringing the girls out to the theatre too!

I'm honestly tired of writing about Avatar, but still being able to pull in $23.6 million in its eighth week of release and landing in second is a mighty impressive feat.

The weekend's only other debut, Lionsgate's From Paris With Love came in third with just $8.1 million.  The action drama stars John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, and marks a significant loss for its studio, which invested $52 million in the picture.

Fox Searchlight's Crazy Heart appears to be getting the right amount of buzz in time for the Oscars, jumping from 14th to eighth spot with $3.7 million in its first weekend in wide release.  Its star Jeff Bridges has been popping up allover the place of late, including landing a spot on the upcoming charity remake of We Are the World.  This was no doubt due to his impressive performance in this film as a washed-up country singer.

Other Oscar contenders outside the Top Ten like An Education, A Single Man, Precious and The Last Station all experienced gross spikes landing in 16th, 18th, 21st and 22nd spots respectively.  Click on each of these films' names to read reviews I posted about them.

REVIEW: THE LAST STATION

Director/screenwriter Michael Hoffman has achieved his greatest accomplishment yet with historical drama The Last Station.  The film is about Russian author Leo Tolstoy in his final days and it documents his very public struggle to remain true to the values he preaches to live a life of peace, non-resistance and being abstaining from luxury.  He is torn between loyalties to his greatest champion, Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti) and wife Sofya (Helen Mirren), as they dispute his final will and who shall own copyright of his literary catalogue.  Chertkov believes the public should own copyright to it as this is what Tolstoy's work would suggest, while Sofya feels his family and she, the wife and mother of their 13 children, should have this right.

Simultaneously, we are introduced to Valentin Bulgakov (James McAvoy) who is hired aboard as Tolstoy's secretary.  He is a great admirer of Tolstoy's work and tries to live his life according to the values he promotes, including the virtues of celibacy.  Bulgakov soon learns that the world is not perfect and that love can change everything, after falling madly in love with free-spirited Masha (Kerry Condon).  While working under Tolstoy, Bulgakov witnesses the heated drama first-hand and he is torn between his loyalties to Chertkov who landed him his prestigious job and also, Sofya.  Meanwhile, she is growing increasingly suspicious of Chertkov's influence on her husband and her insecurities get the best of her as her husband begins to pull away, longing to live his final days in peace.

The Last Station is a beautifully acted film.  Mirren shows dynamic range from playful seductress to an outright fiery bitch when it comes to her own financial security.   Yes again, she proves that she is Oscar worthy as the true star of the show.  Maybe perhaps enough to give early favourite Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) a surprise upset?  And despite her irrational outbursts, we cannot help but feel that she is justified in her actions as in the real world, love and financial entitlement are things a wife should be entitled to.  But this is Tolstoy's world, where even we get a sense that his ideologies sound great on paper but just might not hold up to the test of reality.   

Surprisingly, Canada's Plummer after a very lofty list of cinematic accomplishments including The Sound of Music and Jesus of Nazareth, finally at 80 years old is getting his first Oscar nomination here for Best Supporting Actor, fully embodying Leo Tolstoy's weathered fragility.  Giamatti is also outstanding, giving the story that bit of push and pull to help us see why it is that Tolstoy had an obligation to the world, maybe more than to his family.  Handsome McAvoy's boyish purity gives us an outsider's glimpse of the curious world within the walls of the Tolstoy residence.