There are a few touches of humour in the film, mainly when Lomax is shown enthusing about trains. On Francine Stock’s The Film Programme (12 January 2014) on Radio 4, Frank Cottrell Boyce, the screenwriter, amusingly recounted that on seeing the film, the real Patti said that she had never been as dowdy Kidman portrays her in the film. The character is un-showy and Kidman does not steal the film in any way. Patti is a supportive wife who is eventually successful in helping Eric deal with this past. Nagase is played well by both Tanroh Ishida and Hiroyuki Sanada. Jeremy Irvine is a fabulous young Lomax, having skilfully captured Colin Firth’s mannerisms and way of speaking.įirth beautifully captures Lomax’s torment, much in the same way as he did when playing another complex, fragile and wounded character, George in the 2009 film, A Single Man. Desperately sad, it ultimately delivers the message of forgiveness. The Railway Man is a sensitively made film depicting the horrors of war. The denouement is certainly spectacular, and as with other parts of the film veers from the truth, primarily for dramatic effect. Nagase is alive and working at a Burma Railway museum.Įncouraged by Finlay to seek revenge on their behalf, Lomax sets off to visit the museum and Nagase, whom he has never forgotten and also held guilty for being complicit in his torture. The story builds up to a climax as Finlay receives a newspaper article about Takashi Nagase, the interpreter who, over 30 years earlier, had been attached to the Japanese secret police and who had liaised between Eric’s group of POWs and the Japanese unit officers who tortured them and forced them to work on the railway. She manages, however, to elicit some details about Eric’s suffering and war experiences from Finlay, a fellow former POW and friend of Eric.
Patti feels useless as she cannot get through to Eric despite her attempts at coaxing him. It is unsurprising that Eric experiences frequent meltdowns as a result of his memories. I found that the lingering psychological effects which the beatings had on Eric, were even more distressing than the actual physical torture itself as depicted in the film.
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While difficult to watch at times, the full horrors of the torture are more fully disclosed in the book. Having read the book, I was aware that Eric’s torture went on for two years but this is not made clear in the film. These torture scenes, offered as flashbacks, are harrowing and remind the viewer of the unimaginable torment to which the POWs were subjected. At this point Lomax carefully takes off his glasses and selflessly offers himself up for torture. The Japanese captors, on finding the device, mercilessly beat one of Lomax’s group. This gives them the courage and hope to hang on to their lives.
Able to hear BBC news reports, the POWs discover that Germany and Japan are in retreat and that the UK is holding out. In flashbacks we see how Eric, aided by a group of fellow POWs who scout for the necessary electrical parts, manages to build a radio. She realises that Eric is periodically tormented with memories of the horrific torture he faced at the hands of his Japanese captors during World War Two.Įric, a former signals engineer in the British army, is unable to tell Patti of the horrors he endured as a Prisoner of War of the Japanese, captured after the fall of Singapore in 1942 and forced to work on the infamous Thai-Burma Railway. Far from being an idyllic marriage, Patti soon becomes aware of Eric’s sudden rages, mood swings, abrupt withdrawal of affection and unexpected annoyance at incorrect bills and other such trifles. It seems orchestrated by fate as Eric has only caught that particular train by figuring out an alternative route home as a result of his scheduled train having been delayed.Įric and Patti end up getting married. Nicole Kidman playing Patti, Lomax’s second wife, exceeded my low expectations of her for this role.įittingly, love blossoms between devoted rail enthusiast Eric and Patti on a train. The Railway Man is a powerful film based on Eric Lomax’s book of the same name, featuring particularly wonderful performances by Colin Firth and Jeremy Irvine as, respectively, the young and older Eric Lomax. Stars Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, Stellan Skarsgård, Tanroh Ishida, Hiroyuki Sanada Review by Susan Meehan Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Eric Lomax and Andy Paterson and based on an adaptation of the bestselling autobiography of the same name by Eric Lomax
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