the audience applauded

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Lacks real conviction. Patchy. I got interested in the modern characters and then got taken back to WW2 and Burma. Acting is good - problem is with screenplay and direction.

Can the unforgivable be forgiven? What is the right attitude towards perpetrators and collaborators of crimes of war, genocide and torture? Does time really heal? Is revenge the right answer? Is forgiveness possible and who has the right to forgive? Such questions are often asked in the war and especially Holocaust literature and cinema. Answers differ, as they do in real life and history. The Railway Man, the strong dramatic film inspired by the true characters and life stories of Eric Lomax and Takesi Nagase, asks and tries to provide an answer in the historical context of the killing prisoner camps of British prisoners in Japanese occupied Indochina during WWII.For many of the survivors of genocides or atrocities the wars that inflicted their sufferance never end. This was for many decades the case of Eric Lomax (acted as a young man by Jeremy Irvine and by Colin Firth at his maturity). He surrounds himself with a wall of silence and has difficulties to adapt to life after the war. The late story of love in his life (the second marriage in his real biography) imposes on him the duty to come to terms - one way or another - with his past. He has a chance that his fellows (like officer Finlay acted by Stellan Skarsgård) would not have. This means meeting face to face his torturer and traveling back to the infamous Kwai river area where the allied prisoners who fell in the hands of the Japanese were held during the war. This type of prisoner - guardian (or torturer) encounter many years later can also be seen in various war and Holocaust books films. Eventually - and this also happened in real life in this case - reconciliation and forgiveness prevail over enmity and revenge, with the former enemies having the chance to look one into the eyes of the other. The balance between honor and dignity in time of war switches, as the guilt turns into remorse, and revenge into forgiveness. The auto-biographical book written by Eric Lomax was turned by the script in a dramatic and romantic story which succeeds to be true to the essence while omitting some of the details of the story (for example Eric's first marriage). Colin Firth achieves one of the best performances in his career, with very good support from Stellan Skarsgård and Nicole Kidman. Director Jonathan Teplitzky does a fine efficient job in telling the story in a fluent manner, with discretion and avoiding useless effects. The flashbacks from the war times are very well filmed and the period rendered in a very credible manner. Conflicts between nations include a myriad of personal conflicts and stories of lives broken by wars. Peace and reconciliation between nations can become true and lasting only when most of the suffering is overcome. This film describes one possible story. We may agree or not with the path taken by the heroes, but we need to acknowledge and respect the dignified way it is being told and made public - including in this movie.

In the opening scenes one could be forgiven for thinking that this was going to be a romantic comedy; we see a somewhat awkward man, Eric Lomax, getting on a train to Scotland and start talking to fellow passenger, Patti. By the time he gets off he has told her about all the places they passed through and learnt of her itinerary in Scotland… a few days later he is waiting for her in Edinburgh. The two are soon married and Patti starts to realise that there is something wrong with Eric; he is clearly troubled but can't talk about why. She asks his friend Finlay about it and he reluctantly tells her about how he and Eric were prisoners of the Japanese during the war. During this time they were forced to work on the Thai-Burma railway where Eric was brutally beaten and tortured by their captors after they discover a radio belonging to the prisoners. He later gives her a newspaper cutting about how their erstwhile tormentor is now acting as a museum guide at the site where Eric was tortured, along with a knife… the implication is clear; he believes that if Eric is to slay his demons he should slay this man. Patti gives the items to her husband and he heads to Thailand and confronts the man however the meeting doesn't end as either man expected.This was a deeply moving film, based on real events, told at a fairly gentle pace. Colin Firth does an impressive job as the elder Lomax, even if he does seem a little young for the role, as does Jeremy Irvine as the younger Lomax, and Nicole Kidman is good as Patti. Although his role is relatively small Stellan Skarsgård is great as Finlay, the rest of the cast were pretty good too. Given its subject matter it isn't surprising that there are some fairly gruelling scenes; these include the sight of prisoners being brutally beaten as well as a prolonged torture scene where Lomax is water-boarded by his captors. These scenes aren't gratuitous as they are needed to show us why Lomax is still tormented a quarter of a century after the war ended. There are some flaws; the most obvious, especially given Lomax's obsession with railways, being the fact that the train where he and Patti meet clearly wasn't one that would have been in operation in the '80s… it was so old that I wondered if I'd misread the date that came on the screen and it was really the '60s! Thankfully this won't be a problem if don't know anything about British Rail in the '80s. Overall I'd certainly recommend to film.

It is important to remember this film is based on true events between real people. Seeing this simply as a war film would miss the point. The film is exploring the stubborn disabling effects of war and violence on the mind. In a current Western world where PTSD is common in veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, we here about the veterans who kill or commit suicide. We hear the cry for more help by veteran organizations and government. This film gets down to the core issues which develop between individuals under the duress of bullying by patriotic leaders. Some comments here have decried the emphasis on torture. However, that torture on all levels is the subject of the film. The film isn't about the miraculous healing of a broken man by a woman. The sustaining support, albeit coolly English, of the tortured soldier by Kidman's character is a catalyst, not a cure.The scenes between Firth and Sanada are extremely well done. They reveal a process of grief and healing between two damaged people. Feeling pain and violence leading to forgiveness and friendship. The basis of all reconciliation and healing. I wonder if younger generations can appreciate the hard work this takes. I also wonder if they can appreciate the deep devastation of war and lethal violence on the human mind. They have been bathed in a media of violence.