The Verdict? A golden opportunity missed. The director settles instead for a tepid tone, reminiscent of early Masterpiece Theater productions the results are well intentioned and motivated by lofty aspirations - yet not a little dull. On the face of it, Lomax’s torture while a POW and his subsequent confrontation with the man he held responsible for it should have been a screenwriter’s dream - plenty of opportunities for suspense and the exposition of powerful feelings…but British screenwriters Frank Boyce and Andy Paterson never get inside the story’s characters and much of the tension implicit in its storyline dissipates at the movie’s climax.ĭespite the presence of first-rate actors (Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman & Stellan Skarsgard) and a plot that brings the camera from Scotland to Queensland Australia and finally to the jungles of Thailand, Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky never gets the movie’s pacing and intensity just right, dissipating Firth’s cramped rages, Kidman’s genuine warmth and Skarsgard’s brotherly concern for a fellow soldier unable to come to terms with his terrifyingly and degrading wartime experiences. The film begins as if it is going to be a saccharine. The Lomax we first meet is 60-ish and rumpled, a budding codger and practiced 'train enthusiast.' His obsessive knowledge of the British rail systemwhich trains to take where, at what time, given any circumstancesuggests a mind vigilantly aware of its options, of the best way out. This earnest but rather colorless adaptation of Eric Lomax’s book about his wartime treatment by the Japanese in WW II lacks both the narrative drive and emotional punch necessary to sustain its nearly two-hour running time. Based on the autobiography of WWII prisoner-of-war Eric Lomax, this moving and harrowing new film deals with the horrific torture inflicted on prisoners by the Japanese on the infamous Burma Railway. Drama On an afternoon in 1983, Eric Lomax (Colin Firth), a quiet, middle-aged radio and railway enthusiast meets bubbly Patti (Nicole Kidman) on a Scottish. As The Railway Man shows, the culture of silence runs deep. The consensus reads: 'Understated to a fault, The Railway Man transcends its occasionally stodgy pacing with a touching, fact-based story and the quiet chemistry of its stars. ![]() Alas, true stories (even heroic ones) do not always good films make. On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film has a 67 approval rating based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The Railway Man Eric Lomax 4.11 7,006 ratings709 reviews During the second world war Eric Lomax was forced to work on the notorious Burma-Siam Railway and was tortured by the Japanese for making a crude radio.
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