Review of The Railway Man (2013) by Josep P — 01 Nov 2014

An old-school post World War II psychological drama, The Railway Man is an emotional story of war horrors, coming to terms with post-wartime reality and finding forgiveness. Smooth acting and a solid dose of old-school film-making ensure that this movie has the power to captivate the audience, but what deprives it from being an Award-level drama is the patchy story-telling and overall predictability.

Based on the best-selling autobiography, the story is centered on the post-war psychological trauma that Eric Lomax (Colin Firth) experiences, the attempts of his wife Patti Lomax (Nicole Kidman) to help him and the final reconciliation between Eric and one of the Japanese soldiers responsible for his tortures. Eric memories are told as part of his nightmares and hallucinogenic black outs with a brutality that would touch the more emotional among the viewers. Combined with Flirth's smooth and elegiac performance, The Railway Man works perfectly as an emotional drama.

Unfortunately, the wonderful performances and original story are told in a quite uneven and almost boring way. Slow, with unexplainable time-frame jumps, Jonathan Teplitzky's delivery stumbles when it comes to pacing. The romance between Flirth and Kidman is too quick and unconvincing; the moments spent on Eric meeting his torturer are also far from being enough, and the final retributions is completely is lacking the necessary emotional load. This deprives The Railway Man from being anything more than a passable post-wartime psychological drama.

As a whole, given the star-power of the leading actors and the inspirational source material, The Railway Man is far from matching the expectations for an Award-worthy material. Yet it remains a fairly good drama that would satisfy viewers who decide to see it on a quiet autumn evening.