User Reviews

I saw the movie yet 3 or 4 times and cannot get enough of it. Though it is really a bit soapy, I always have to cry for being touched at the time the lonely boy gets accompanied while singing about his loneliness by the tough girl. And I once was really proud to being called "The tough boy who never cries, no matter how stirring the movie is"... Actually I really never cried on a movie before. But I have also never been touched like that by a movie. Perhaps it is the story itself. It is sort of telling my story. As long as I can think, I never believed in GOD, Santa or such things. Late I found HIM though. I could recommend the movie and will give him ten out of ten points.

The film is pretty to look at, admittedly, and the music is pleasant, although perhaps a bit too reminiscent of Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" at times. What I object to is the theme expressed. Constantly the film urges the central character, along with the viewer, to "believe," as if this were some sort of virtue. Blind belief is not a good thing, and is probably responsible for most of the evils of the last few centuries, including suicide bombers, terrorist attacks on office buildings, the attempted extermination of the Jews (among others) during the Second World War, and religious wars ad infinitum. What the world really needs now is questioners. Toward the end of the film, when our young hero is deposited safely back at home, the Conductor tells him, "The important thing is to decide to get on the train, no matter where it's going." My flesh crawled.