Lomax also finds some fleeting moments of tentative joy with the love of his life, whom he encounters in middle age: his wife, Patti, played by Nicole Kidman in an underwritten role. Throughout his career, Firth repeatedly has proven himself to be a master at steadily revealing his characters, and the way his Lomax eventually reclaims his identity before enjoying some redemption is gently stirring. While the film is about war, history and man's inhumanity to man, for those who are willing to see, the virtues of reconciliation and forgiveness have the power to transcend suffering and to heal the wounded souls of victims and perpetrators.What’s not surprising is the subtlety Colin Firth finds in playing Eric Lomax, whose autobiography inspired "The Railway Man." ( Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson co-wrote the screenplay.) Playing Lomax as a shell of his former self decades after his imprisonment, Firth is both quietly distracted and fitfully tormented.
THE RAILWAY MAN LICENSE
For dramatic purposes, the filmmakers of "The Railway Man" have taken some license with Lomax's story, but overall, it is a truthful account about a scarred POW, a wife's love for her husband, and a decision to reconcile that brought moral freedom decades later.
The film evokes other movies about World War II, such as "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "To End All Wars." For those who have read the book, the upcoming Christmas release of "Unbroken," about Louis Zamperini, who also survived a Japanese POW camp, will come to mind. Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky never overplays his hand, evoking stark performances from his actors. The film is adapted from Eric Lomax's best-selling autobiography The Railway Man: A POW's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness. His psychological and spiritual suffering are evident in his stiff bearing and his almost childlike, obsessive interest in the railways that masks his inner pain. Firth's performance is at once vulnerable and strong. In and out of theaters quickly, I only saw it because it was on the selection of films offered on a recent flight to Rome. theaters in April and became available on DVD in August. Eric can hardly bear to learn that this man, who had so profoundly humiliated him, was still living. He is working in Thailand at a World War II museum dedicated to reconciliation. Thirty-five years later, Eric learns that Nagase (now portrayed by Hiroyuki Sanada) is still alive. Even though he explains the device can only receive, they use waterboarding and psychological torture to get him to admit his "wrongdoing." One man especially, the interpreter, Takashi Nagase (Tanroh Ishida), is compelled to make Eric's life miserable, almost to the point of no return. But the Japanese discover it, and Eric is isolated and tortured so he will admit to sending news to the allies. Eric, always mechanical, builds a small radio receiver so the men can learn news of the war in the POW camp. The men are made to work under inhuman conditions. The backstory is that Eric and his band of brothers were captured by the Japanese in Singapore and forced to work on the Thai-Burma Railway in 1942. Finlay does something desperate that gets Eric's attention. Patti approaches Finlay (Skellan Skarsgard), the unit's leader, to ask him to get Eric to open up to her, because his nightmares and behavior are worsening. Eric has nightmares, and though he meets with the men from his squadron every month or so, this does little to alleviate his stress. Soon Patti learns that Eric suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. One day in 1980, while taking his seat on a train, Lomax (played as an older man by Colin Firth) meets Patti Wallace (Nicole Kidman), and they strike up a friendship that eventually leads to love and marriage, though Patti is almost 20 years younger than the veteran. After World War II, he memorized timetables and had a keen interest in the railway system of Great Britain. "The Railway Man" is probably the best film you haven't seen this year.įrom the time he was a boy, Eric Lomax (Jeremy Irvine) always loved trains in his native Scotland. Colin Firth in "The Railway Man" (CNS/The Wienstein Company)
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