The Railway Man

Overview

If nothing says 'festive summer fun' for you like war, post-traumatic stress disorder, a crumbling marriage and protracted torture, then The Railway Man is shaping up to be the perfect Boxing Day release. It's also a fair indication you should seek some form of medical assistance. 

Based on true events, The Railway Man tells the story of Eric Lomax — a WWII British signalman forced to work upon the infamous Burma line after the Japanese overran his base. Singled out for his role in fashioning a secret transmitter inside the prison, Lomax (Colin Firth) was subjected to extraordinary brutality and torture by his captors, the effects of which continued to torment him decades after the war's end; one conflict over, another unceasing.  

That second war — the private, unspoken anguish of his memories — isolated Lomax from his friends and family, including his new wife, Patti (Nicole Kidman). Even his fellow veterans refused to discuss their past; a code of silence borne as much from shame as fear. Events finally came to a head in 1980 when Lomax discovered his chief tormenter was still alive and working as a tour guide in the very complex in which he had dispensed his horrors, inviting in Lomax the possibility of long-imagined vengeance.  

Torture, particularly waterboarding, has become a recurrent theme in movies of late — a disturbing, confronting and just occasionally uncomfortably gratifying depiction of a very intimate savagery. The Railway Man contains several examples of this, and none are easily endured. They are, however, necessary — speaking to the heart of Lomax's condition and contributing to the extraordinary emotional impact of the final scene.  

As far as performances go, this is Firth at his softly spoken best. That trademark mix of schoolboy awkwardness and schoolmaster wit contributes to a beautifully nuanced character whose anguish and rage boil beneath the surface and are masked by a tight, asymmetrical smile. Kidman, too, is excellent as the wife determined to see her husband released from his pain, whilst Stellan Skarsgård brings a quiet menace to his role as Lomax's wartime friend Finlay. With much of the film taking place as flashbacks, the younger Lomax is portrayed by Jeremy Irvine, whose impersonation of Firth is eerily on the mark.  

For a film that covers some terrifically dark elements in excruciating detail, The Railway Man remains an overwhelmingly tender offering that won't feel at all out of place for the post-Christmas period.