A victim from World War II's "Death Railway" sets out to find those responsible for his torture. A true story.
It’s always a pleasant surprise when a scrupulously tasteful film stuffed with Oscar-winning talent manages to transcend its awards-bait status. The Railway Man is a film like that.
It’s never quite as remarkable as the story it’s based on.
The Railway Man suffers in terms of script and direction. Perhaps Boyce and Teplitzky felt no grandstanding was necessary to tell Lomax’s story. Regardless, the storytelling feels somewhat pedestrian.
A fascinating life story, The Railway Man is doubtless a better book than a film. Firth and Kidman are not at their best, although Irvine proves his true talent.
There’s a restraint and old-fashioned reserve to The Railway Man that for much of the running time suggests that the powerful emotional conclusion the story deserves may prove elusive. However, those fears are put to rest by a wonderfully acted, very moving climax.
The best thing that could come out of this rather stodgy biopic is that it may steer audiences towards Lomax’s fine and moving book.
Tamely shot, thematically scattershot and uncertainly told — not even Colin Firth can talk this biopic to life.
Intensely moving story shines through circumspect direction.
Ponderous yet moving.
The film has a toughness about it you don’t initially anticipate. Firth captures equally well both Lomax’s essential decency and the violent hatred of his Japanese captors that takes him so long to overcome.
There is a lot of value in the film, but its structural and tonal difficulties mean that the target was missed.
You'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to be moved by this tale's final destination, even if the route there is somewhat circuitous.
It’s the complex meditation on revenge that follows – a development, beautifully acted by Firth – that elevates the film, transforming it from a respectful tribute to one man’s suffering into a quietly powerful exploration of what it takes to truly forgive.
The picture is summed up in a brief but astute sentiment from Lomax: it is not about the tragedy of war; it’s about the crimes of war, the conscious decisions people make and the motivation for making them.
Lomax hopes Railway Man film will help soldiers
Nicole Kidman keen on Scotland after Railway Man
Interview: Patti Lomax and Frank Cottrell Boyce on The Railway Man
Tracks of the years to produce The Railway Man
Englishman Colin Firth on becoming a Scots hero
The Railway Man: Eric Lomax memoirs of being a Japanese-held POW during the war
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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