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Switzerland, United Kingdom, Australia · 2013
Rated R · 1h 56m
Director Jonathan Teplitzky
Starring Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgård, Jeremy Irvine
Genre Drama, History
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Eric Lomax, a former British army officer and prisoner of war, discovers that the Japanese interpreter who tortured him is still alive. Together, he and his new wife set out to confront the man who caused him so much pain. Based on a true story.
Entertainment Weekly by Adam Markovitz
Colin Firth smolders as the PTSD-riddled veteran (played in flashbacks by War Horse‘s Jeremy Irvine), and Nicole Kidman cries dutifully as his wife — but they’re both derailed by the movie’s tidy emotional resolutions.
Village Voice by Alan Scherstuhl
It's heartening to have a tony war film about PTSD and forgiveness; it would be grander still to have one that dedicated itself more fully to examining the courage it would take to offer that forgiveness, rather than dash its energies upon the dreary cowardice of the crime itself.
Time Out London by Cath Clarke
In Firth’s every grimace and flinch you feel the torment of Lomax’s private world, but emotionally ‘The Railway Man’ feels trimmed and tidied up.
The Guardian by Catherine Shoard
From time to time, the script contextualises a little clumsily...but the playing and pacing are terrific.
The Railway Man is such a safe, respectful portrait of true-life catharsis that it feels afraid to reopen the same old wounds it exalts Lomax for confronting.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
The Railway Man is well-acted and handsomely produced, but its honorable intentions are not matched with sustained emotional impact or psychological suspense.
The Playlist by Kevin Jagernauth
For all the assuredness behind the camera and in front of it, there's very little in way of edge or even, surprisingly, emotion.
There’s something decidedly old-fashioned — and also dull as ditchwater — about Jonathan Teplitzky’s retelling of events.
Wrenching, profound and beautifully made, The Railway Man is one of the stunning don’t-miss surprises of the still-young 2014.
The result is a film that does perfectly respectable justice to Lomax's ordeal, without ever making a strong case for itself as independently stirring art.
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