The Railway Man

This review may contain spoilers.

I watched a movie that I thought wouldn't be good skyrocket to a great film. I would give the Railway Man a 7.5/10.

Alright as far as I'm concerned this is one of the greatest war movies I've seen. I don't like war films to be honest, but this focused on war crime and soldier mentality post combat. There are very few films that excel at showing the mentality of these instances and this is one I truly love. The score in this film was haunting and very grim, setting the tone well. The pacing was very well done, it was a movie that had the potential to be boring but wasn't. I also think the war time sets were great and truly brought me into the time period.

Colin Firth, who played Eric Lomax, was great; he showed PTSD in such a strong and convincing light I thought he was haunted and haggard, completely believable throughout. Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Nagase, I thought was pathetic but I also saw his shame and his fear; he's just a brilliant actor who made his character as tortured as Firth's despite less screen time. Jeremy Irvine, who played Young Eric Lomax, had to play one of the most heroic characters and one of the most tortured and he nailed it. Tanroh Ishida, who played Young Nagase, made me feel for this role as well; he was a kid and a coward in war and he had a very interesting and well thought out role.

More than any of these roles I think Stellan Skarsgard, who played Finlay, deserves the most credit in this movie. He owned every moment of screen time he got, he had the best lines, to be frank the mental struggles of this character became something I felt for most. He was the one all the soldiers looked to but he was broken just as bad as they were and it takes us a long time to realise this.

I hated the first twenty minutes of the film, it felt like a cheesy romance and kinda clashed with the genre and story too much. I also wasn't a fan of how the flashbacks were structured, at one point there was a flashback that went so long I didn't know if we'd get back to present day.

Nicole Kidman, who played Patricia Wallace, became a plot point so we could learn the story in the end, frankly she felt unnecessary and was one of the least interesting things about the film. Sam Reid, who played Young Finlay, did not do justice to his role and had terrible screen presence.