Review of The Railway Man (2013) by Peter B — 17 Jul 2015

The Railway Man is a good movie with great actors that failed to hit the mark. There are so many big names in The Railway Man that I expected it to be nothing but brilliant.

The biggest problem is the failed attempt to create the kind of chemistry between Kidman and Firth that the writers and/or directors were going for. It doesn't matter who is in these pivotal roles, with the script they had to work with, nobody could have made this chemistry work. If they would have spent more time with the main characters during the war, the results would have been much better. Sanada and Firth's encounter is way too short and under examined.

The Railway Man is based on a true story and, even though this movie is flawed, is impactful in many ways. The scenes between Kidman and Skarsgard's characters are masterfully done, but there wasn't time to dig any deeper into that relationship either. Ultimately they tried to do too much in this one film.

Altogether it was a pretty good movie. One that I would recommend to any friend who likes dramas. The acting is very good and it moves along nicely, even if incompletely. Worth a watch.