Haunting visual and audio effects also enhance the film’s drama. Filth and starvation are everywhere, and Lomax suffers through brutal beatings and harsh living conditions. Though the film shows relatively little blood, it is nonetheless graphic. It is also known as the Death Railway about 90,000 Asian forced laborers and 12,399 Allied prisoners of war perished while building it.
Completed in approximately one year, it is about 415 kilometers long and connects parts of Thailand and present-day Myanmar. If nothing else, the film sheds light on the rarely told story of the Burma Railway. Irvine, who starred in “War Horse” (2011), is particularly memorable as an inventive young soldier and engineer with a fantastic memory for train history. Though such accomplished leads threaten, at times, to overshadow the supporting actors, Irvine and Sanada also shine in their minor roles.
Kidman, too, employs a great deal of charm in her role, serving as both the film’s backbone and emotional mediator. Firth, known for his Academy Award-winning performance in “The King’s Speech” (2010), in which he also played a man struggling to overcome his demons, delivers a touchingly human representation of Lomax - still at war years after his return home. The film’s seasoned cast must also take some credit for binding the story together. Nothing flabby or superfluous remains to weigh down either the script or the visual storytelling. The frankness of the film, however, effectively conveys the sense of pain and confusion of its protagonist. To be sure, the dialogue isn’t Shakespeare most of the lines are simple and direct (“War leaves a mark, Mrs. Though “The Railway Man” loses some momentum toward its conclusion, it remains engrossing despite abrupt switches between the past and the present.
After learning the whereabouts of the man responsible for his torture, Takashi Nagase (Tanroh Ishida in the World War II storyline, Hiroyuki Sanada in the contemporary one), Lomax must choose either to get revenge on his captor or find a way to preserve his marriage and his sanity.įast-paced and thrillingly suspenseful, the film benefits from extraordinary editing and a tight script. When a mid-life romance with Patti (Nicole Kidman) begins to turn Lomax’s life around, he suddenly finds himself struggling more than ever to come to terms with his experience. The story has continuous flashbacks to a younger Lomax’s (Jeremy Irvine) time as a British Army officer, when he was tortured in a labor camp following the British surrender to the Japanese in Singapore. “The Railway Man,” based on the 1995 bestselling eponymous, tells the story of Eric Lomax (Colin Firth) and his struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder following World War II. Forgiving, after all, is often easier said than done. “Sometime, the hating has to stop,” are the words that wrap-up the trailer of “The Railway Man.” As the teaser suggests, this beautiful story of revenge, honor and forgiveness leaves the audience wondering just how so much hate can and will end.
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