Review of The Railway Man (2013) by Mary Cox G — 27 Apr 2014

Although not really sure what to expect from The Railway Man, it was an Australian film directed by Jonathan Teplitzky who made the Aussie classic Getting' Square and boasted Colin Firth in the lead role, so it sounded like effective entertainment.

I'm not personally familiar with the life of Eric Lomax so I can't say for sure if The Railway Man is fully true, but it has an interesting premise to it so be it fact or fiction it has a lot of potential.

The story in The Railway Man doesn't have too much stimulation to it since the importance rests significantly more on the themes it covers than on the dramatic way it goes about covering them. Admittedly, the slow pace in the film made it a little hard to keep my interest in the film maintained consistently over the course of the 116 minute running time that The Railway Man went for, and the basic story felt as if it was a little stretched for the course of its running time. I still enjoyed The Railway Man, I just found that its slow pace and extensive running time was a rather notable fault which made the experience a little bit dull. The Railway Man is really not for the impatient because the story doesn't have too many plot dynamics to cover and is more focused on the nature of the character Eric Lomax. While it does look deeply into him, it doesn't look too much into the world around him and so the story may be a bit thin and a bit long for certain viewers to handle. But those who can appreciate its natural movement and gentle rate of development will be able to feel the true effect of the story in The Railway Man. Yet even those who can appreciate all that may find the effect of The Railway Man to be only subtle due to the understated nature of the drama in the film.

Riding the directional talent of Jonathan Teplitzky, The Railway man proves itself to be an entertaining film. It is entertaining in the way it stimulates the minds of its viewers and leaves them to think about everything and it dramatises the small quantity of dramatic plot dynamics that it has very well, ensuring that audiences face the full effect of Eric Lomax's story. His life tale is dramatised well, and thanks to Jonathan Teplitzky's eye for strong imagery it has good visual appeal as well.

The Railway Man is thoroughly convincing in its setting due to the fact that it rides a lot of realistic scenery thanks to Jonathan Teplitzky's decision to shoot on location for the entire film. It captures the beautiful scenery of its locations very well with smooth cinematography which is commonly atmospheric and captures a lot of the key small details in the visual plane. And an incredible production design combined with greatly convincing costumes all make the film more interesting from its visual perspective. And the musical score helps everything move along in an atmospheric manner as well.

One of the most key aspects to the success in The Railway Man is the performances of its cast.

The standout performance is the talents of lead actor Jeremy Irvine. Earning his reputation as a character actor for this film because of his dedication to starving himself and doing his own torture scenes as a matter of staying in character, and it pays off because it makes the entire experience a lot more realistic and therefore brutal. Easily conveying the idea that he is facing true suffering because he actually is, Jeremy Irvine takes a very respectable approach to dealing with his role in The Railway Man. He looks very much like Eric Lomax and acts out the role with his best possible talents which is very impressive because he conveys the real suffering of the man in his situation by really suffering. That kind of dedication is remarkable and makes The Railway Man strongly admirable for its realism. If Eric Lomax were still alive today, he would rejoice proudly at Jeremy Irvine's dedication to the role and strong emotional tension combined with his varying line delivery. Jeremy Irvine is great at portraying the titular man in The Railway Man.

And Colin Firth does a fine job portraying the older version of Eric Lomax. Looking strikingly similar to Jeremy Irvine, Colin Firth portrays Eric Lomax as he really is: an aged man coming to terms with facing a life of pain and misery after his experiences in a POW camp. He conveys a lot of inner emotional turmoil which conveys the type of emotional troubles that he has faced, and the way that he leaves himself with a certain rough edged stoicism depicts the true kind of harsh life he has had as depicted through flashbacks. Colin Firth captures the mood of the older Eric Lomax easily and with his natural dramatic acting talents makes the situation great from the perspective of a post-war look at the resulting effect on Eric Lomax. He does a great job as a lead in The Railway Man.

Since I find Nicole Kidman to be the least Australian of any Australian actresses because of the way that she went to America and reinvented her look with plastic surgery while taking on a lot of commercialised roles, in The Railway Man viewers get to see her returning to her roots with a step back into Australian cinema. She makes a sympathetic and charming effort in The Railway Man by going back to the basics and focusing on the important character elements of Patti Lomax which she manages to find and convey well every time. Her chemistry with Colin Firth is grand and the way that she makes a caring effort ensures that the film is a lot more compelling. Nicole Kidman gives it an excellent effort in The Railway Man which pays off.

Hiroyuki Sanada also gave an effective and complex performance which shared an intense and strong chemistry with Colin Firth.

So despite not having a big scale of events to cover and maintaining a consistently slow pace, Jonathan Teplizky's artistic visual style and handling of the complicated material in The Railway Man is fairly impressive and it pays tribute to the titular Railway Man very well with strong acting and a look at two separate timelines in Eric Lomax's life, even if it is a little too subtle at times.