The Railway Man (2014)

Sadly, Jeremy Irvine did not get top billing in the media, as did Firth and Kidman. Frankly, Irvine as the young Lieutenant Eric Lomax makes this movie.Irvine's torture and torment in the POW camp run by the Japanese during WWII is portrayed with shocking intensity. It is no secret to those of us who know even a smidgen about the Japanese in WWII how outrageously and ungodly cruel and inhumane they were.Colin Firth as the aging Lomax gives a good performance, but he is more reflective whereas Irvine as the younger Lomax is reactive, rebellious and exceedingly strong.Nicole Kidman has always possessed a special beauty. She portrays her role well as at first the lover and then as Firth's wife. She is pensive, concerning and very, very genuine in her role.I believe that Jeremy Irvine received lesser billing in written follow ups to this movie because of the celebrity of Firth and Kidman. That is sorely disappointing, because Irvine IS the core of this entire movie. I came upon this movie only lately, as a result of seeing Irvine in "The War Horse" and then "Stonewall". He is a stunning young man with extraordinary talent with uncommon acting versatility.

Lacks real conviction. Patchy. I got interested in the modern characters and then got taken back to WW2 and Burma. Acting is good - problem is with screenplay and direction.

In the opening scenes one could be forgiven for thinking that this was going to be a romantic comedy; we see a somewhat awkward man, Eric Lomax, getting on a train to Scotland and start talking to fellow passenger, Patti. By the time he gets off he has told her about all the places they passed through and learnt of her itinerary in Scotland… a few days later he is waiting for her in Edinburgh. The two are soon married and Patti starts to realise that there is something wrong with Eric; he is clearly troubled but can't talk about why. She asks his friend Finlay about it and he reluctantly tells her about how he and Eric were prisoners of the Japanese during the war. During this time they were forced to work on the Thai-Burma railway where Eric was brutally beaten and tortured by their captors after they discover a radio belonging to the prisoners. He later gives her a newspaper cutting about how their erstwhile tormentor is now acting as a museum guide at the site where Eric was tortured, along with a knife… the implication is clear; he believes that if Eric is to slay his demons he should slay this man. Patti gives the items to her husband and he heads to Thailand and confronts the man however the meeting doesn't end as either man expected.This was a deeply moving film, based on real events, told at a fairly gentle pace. Colin Firth does an impressive job as the elder Lomax, even if he does seem a little young for the role, as does Jeremy Irvine as the younger Lomax, and Nicole Kidman is good as Patti. Although his role is relatively small Stellan Skarsgård is great as Finlay, the rest of the cast were pretty good too. Given its subject matter it isn't surprising that there are some fairly gruelling scenes; these include the sight of prisoners being brutally beaten as well as a prolonged torture scene where Lomax is water-boarded by his captors. These scenes aren't gratuitous as they are needed to show us why Lomax is still tormented a quarter of a century after the war ended. There are some flaws; the most obvious, especially given Lomax's obsession with railways, being the fact that the train where he and Patti meet clearly wasn't one that would have been in operation in the '80s… it was so old that I wondered if I'd misread the date that came on the screen and it was really the '60s! Thankfully this won't be a problem if don't know anything about British Rail in the '80s. Overall I'd certainly recommend to film.

In times of war as well as other times, things are done which some do not consider normal, and in their judgments all is not always right. I must give the actors a lot of credit because they filled the characters most adequately, a look here, a step there, in my opinion they each measured what and how they were going to do it to convey the correct thought, and that is one of the important steps in acting.The story was not only compelling for me, but it rivaled many I have seen unfold, and as the others had done, this one had many turning points.Rent, buy or whatever, this is a very good film, and worth the viewing, although, not quite for the faint of heart.