The Railway Man
Starring Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman
Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky
Harrowing and heartbreaking, the true story of WWII soldier Eric Lomax weaves a tale of redemption and the price of forgiveness. Based on the British officer’s bestselling autobiography, The Railway Man depicts the veteran (Firth) still haunted by his past in 1980, and recounts the horrific details of his capture by Japanese fighters and imprisonment in a POW camp through a series of flashbacks where he is played, with great effect, by War Horse star Jeremy Irvine.
Lomax is still clearly traumatized by his war days and is often very distant to his wife Patti (Kidman) but he soon discovers the individual responsible for the majority of the atrocities against him is still alive, thus galvanizing the man on a road to vengeance. The film suffers from narrative issues as the deliberate pace of Firth’s story doesn’t always mesh with the shock value of his earlier ordeal.
The Railway Man also loses points for being overly sentimental as David Hirschfelder’s melodramatic score swells once too often.
Thankfully, the film manages to hold its ground as a multi-faceted cast anchors the story convincingly. Firth and Kidman are in top form, while Stellan Skarsgård brings a quiet desperation that displays he is still much more than the quirky scientist in the Marvel movies.
However, the film’s most enthralling moments are between Lomax and his captor (an excellent Hiroyuki Sanada) when they eventually reunite; the power in these scenes lingers in the eyes of two men reconnecting in a profound and disturbing way.
