Given the nature of the material, it seems rather churlish to criticize THE RAILWAY MAN. Based on Eric Lomax's autobiographical reminiscence, the film chronicles his experiences of working on the notorious Burma railway as a Japanese prisoner-of-war, and how such experiences continue to blight his existence, thirty-five years after the war has ended. Colin Firth gives an intense performance as Lomax - someone who tries his best to sustain a facade of respectability, but is basically unable to cope with life. His face screws up with pain; on other occasions it is almost expressionless. It is only when he plucks up the courage to return to Japan to confront the Japanese interrogator who tortured him all those years ago (Hiroyuki Sanada), that Lomax can work towards some kind of recovery. The film does an effective job of juxtaposing past and present: some of the sequences set in wartime are very difficult to watch, especially when the younger Lomax (Jeremy Irvine) is being tortured. Having said that, Jonathan Teplitzky's film is very slow- paced; there are too many redundant close-ups and/or pans of the Scottish landscape that impede the development of the plot. As Lomax's wife Patti, Nicole Kidman has an insignificant role; although she played a large part in helping her spouse on the road to recovery, we do not get this feeling in the film. On the contrary, she appears rather reticent, as if believing that to involve herself too much might worsen Lomax's condition. However the final confrontation between Lomax and his Japanese ex-captor is highly dramatic and well worth waiting for.
Review of The Railway Man
