Movie Review: The Railway Man

The Railway Man is one such tale, and it is told with elegance, respect and restraint by Australian director Jonathan Teplitzky.

Colin Firth plays Eric Lomax a conservative middle-aged Brit who has a geeky fascination with all things train-related. His hyper-awareness of timetables and how to combine them usefully is indirectly responsible for the beginning of a relationship with a woman named Patti (Nicole Kidman), and the pair seem perfect for each other – and possibly nobody else.

But Eric has a dark past that involves being a prisoner of war in a Japanese labour camp, a place in which he had experiences from which he has still not recovered several decades later. The younger Eric is played superbly by Jeremy Irvine, who is a spookily good match for Firth.

Eric Lomax (Colin Firth) must make a difficult decision about facing his past in ‘The Railway Man’. Pictures: Supplied.

The two separate narratives cohabit effectively, especially after viewers have recovered from the first curious cut to Eric’s memories. Neither plotline ever threatens to go over the top, which could easily happen where there are clear lines drawn between the prisoners of war and their captors.

Director of photography Garry Phillips deserves a special mention. He gives The Railway Man a sharp, contrasting visual profile with two distinct personalities – cold grey and blue for safe for Scotland, and violent greens and primary colours for the Malaysian jungles in which the real Lomax (the film is based on a true story) and his companions were held.