An art-house film worth finding, The Railway Man is an emotional journey of physical and emotional cruelty featuring exceptional acting.
The Railway Man (Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgard, Jeremy Irvine, Hiroyuki Sanada) – Just when you thought that all of the World War II stories had been told, The Railway Man transports us to the Asian theater where the British surrender to the Japanese in the Philippines. The soldiers, including as group of engineers, are imprisoned and then put to work building a rail line across Thailand/Burma, an impossible-to-traverse territory through jungles and mountains. By itself, this could be a compelling story, a sort of TheBridge on the River Kwai.
But The Railway Man is a very personal story, centered on a studious, quiet, somewhat disconnected man named Eric Lomax (Colin Firth). Eric loves trains, knows all of the British train schedules, and seems quite normal. A chance meeting on a train introduces him to Patti (Nicole Kidman), a nurse on holiday. He is smitten and so is she. Through the magic of film, they are married. But something is wrong. Eric has flashbacks. Patti seeks answers and finds them from his best friend, Finlay (Stellan Skarsgard), who leads a group of veteran POWs. Lomax becomes isolated, haunted, and uncommunicative. It is almost like his love for and marriage to Patti triggers his long dormant Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
When Finlay discovers information about the whereabouts of an interpreter (Hiroyuki Sanada) who helped torture Lomax in the internment camp, Lomax decides he needs to head to Thailand to get revenge. His journey provides the film with its power.
Exceptional films often contain just one or two memorable, unforgettable moments. The Railway Man delivers two. Colin Firth and Hiroyuki Sanada deliver those moments. Two lesser actors might have rendered these scenes schmaltzy or overwrought. These two deliver gold. Firth, who has made a career of playing droll, shy, reluctant, and tortured characters in many dramas (including his Academy Award winning performance in The King’s Speech) and a few comedies (the Bridget Jones series), is one of the great actors of his generation. He is fabulous here. Sanada, one of Japan’s most celebrated actors who boasts a large body of work, plays Tekeshi Nagase, the interpreter with a nuanced sense of haunting guilt and contrition. The initial confrontation between the two characters is electric theater. It is staged right in the old prison camp, which has been turned into a museum run by Nagase. The second meeting, which occurs at the denouement, is magical.
First-rate acting makes the movie soar. We expect that from Firth and Kidman, but the supporting cast is mesmerizing. Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) as the young Lomax and Tanroh Ishida as the young Nagase carry much of the film. Stellan Skarsgard, Sweden’s superstar who has graced the American screen in everything from Good Will Hunting to Angels and Demons to The Hunt for Red October to Mamma Mia! (with Colin Firth), plays Finlay, whose failing is that he watched as his friend was beaten and battered. (In the film’s only major flaw, Skarsgard’s Swedish accent makes it hard to buy him as a British soldier and former POW).
Not many people have seen this emotional film. The box office has been anemic (less than $3 million on an estimated $18 million budget). The reviews have been good. Audiences love it. It is too bad that there isn’t much interest in exceptional films like The Railway Man.