By: debbie lynn elias
Based on the true story of former WWII Japanese prisoner of war Eric Lomax and script adaptation by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson, director Jonathan Teplitzky brings us Lomax’s harrowing story of survival under the most brutal of circumstances, and the power of redemption and forgiveness.
Seeming a mild-mannered slightly odd duck with an obsession for railroads and timetables, it doesn’t take long for us to learn that Lomax is a bit damaged from his experiences in the war, experiences of which he doesn’t want to speak, experiences which terrorize him day and night. While serving as radio man for a British contingent stationed in the Far East, on capture as prisoners of war, Eric and his entire unit, as well as others, are forced to work as slave labor, building the Thailand-Burma Railway aka Death Railway.
A loner for the past 40 years, serendipity plays a hand when Eric meets Patti on a train. It’s love at first sight. But Eric tells Patti nothing about his past and it is only after they’re married that she sees him start to break down, become more reclusive, violent, confused. A former nurse, Patti realizes this is a result of whatever happened in the war. She also knows that the only way to heal is to face the past, confront it, and after pleading with one of Eric’s former brothers-in-arms, she learns of the horrors all of the men endured as prisoners; that is, up to a point, as Eric has never spoken to anyone of what happened to him, what tortured he endured, when he was taken from the group and imprisoned alone, in a cage, in a dark room. And now decades later, those tortures are as real as ever.
Set in the 1980’s, Teplitzky relies on vividly lensed flashbacks of Eric’s time as a Japanese POW that assail the senses with light, texture, saturated color and sound. The terror is real, palpable. We feel the pain of each horror inflicted on Eric. We see his future being shaped by the tortures inflicted upon him. We also see the strength of the human spirit, the resilience and hope.
Those human qualities are delicately and expertly brought to life not only by Colin Firth as an aged Eric, but moreso, by Jeremy Irvine as Young Eric who should garner Academy attention come Oscar time. Captivating with a blend of confidence and fear, Irvine is spellbinding. Firth, meanwhile, makes the heart stop as he goes into seizure-like physical nightmares as a man suffering the post traumatic stress of his tortuous past. Frightening, yet impossible to turn away from Firth’s performance.
As Eric’s loving and devoted wife, Patti, Nicole Kidman brings a quiet gravitas to Patti of which I wish we had seen more. Kidman and Firth connect with a comfortable ease serving as a soft balance to the tortures of Eric’s past life. Stellan Skarsgaard serves well as Eric’s former commander Finlay, giving the character an authoritative yet compassionate edge instrumental in the development of the film’s third act.
As Eric’s cruel captor Takashi Nagase, Tanroh Ishida and Hiroyuki Sanada, as the young and older Nagase, respectively, embody the character. Ishida, bringing Nagase to life in the heat of the war and with the prime objective to build the railroad and make a name for himself with his superiors, delivers a tacit cold cruelty that pushes the boundaries of inhumane treatment to excess. However, it is Sanada as the older Nagase who matches Firth beat for beat providing a palpable emotional arc that goes from seeming ambivalence to mutual understanding and compassion. To watch Firth and Sanada in this emotionally nuanced dance is not only stirring but engrossing.
Not to divulge the plot developments for those who haven’t read Lomax’s book of the same name on which the film is based, suffice to say that THE RAILWAY MAN packs an emotional punch to move even the coldest heart; so powerful you feel the pain, you feel burdens lift as demons are faced, you feel the forgiveness fill the screen and the room….and just watching, you are lifted and uplifted.
Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky
Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson based on the autobiography of the same name by Eric Lomax
Cast: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgaard, Jeremy Irvine, Tanroh Ishida, Hiroyuki Sanada
