This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/07/toronto-railway-man-review
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| The Railway Man: Toronto 2013 - first look review | The Railway Man: Toronto 2013 - first look review |
| (12 days later) | |
| If you were forced to identify a theme from Toronto this year, it would have to be torture. There are beatings so brutal in 12 Years a Slave that a woman on my row headed for the exit, berating those of us who stayed. Prisoners features inventively horrific acts practised on captives; even Labor Day has Josh Brolin stringing up Kate Winslet (though in the best possible taste, and all for her own good, even pleasure). | If you were forced to identify a theme from Toronto this year, it would have to be torture. There are beatings so brutal in 12 Years a Slave that a woman on my row headed for the exit, berating those of us who stayed. Prisoners features inventively horrific acts practised on captives; even Labor Day has Josh Brolin stringing up Kate Winslet (though in the best possible taste, and all for her own good, even pleasure). |
| The unspeakable horrors dished out by the Japanese army to British prisoners-of-war working on the Burma railway are the subject of this extremely affecting and accomplished drama, based on the autobiography of Eric Lomax. Lomax, who died last year, was a railway enthusiast from Edinburgh unfortunate enough to be captured in 1942 and subjected to horrific abuse after owning up to having built a radio at his camp. | The unspeakable horrors dished out by the Japanese army to British prisoners-of-war working on the Burma railway are the subject of this extremely affecting and accomplished drama, based on the autobiography of Eric Lomax. Lomax, who died last year, was a railway enthusiast from Edinburgh unfortunate enough to be captured in 1942 and subjected to horrific abuse after owning up to having built a radio at his camp. |
| Jonathan Teplitzky's drama starts some years later, with Lomax, now living in Berwick-upon-Tweed but still nuts about trains, meets the newly-divorced Patti (Nicole Kidman). This first 20 minutes are a disconcerting delight: a late-age courtship that's more romantic and convincing than you'd credit. Firth is on beautiful, sardonic form, his voice more chocolate than usual, dryly delivering chat-up lines like: "If you think Warrington's exciting, wait till we get to Preston." | Jonathan Teplitzky's drama starts some years later, with Lomax, now living in Berwick-upon-Tweed but still nuts about trains, meets the newly-divorced Patti (Nicole Kidman). This first 20 minutes are a disconcerting delight: a late-age courtship that's more romantic and convincing than you'd credit. Firth is on beautiful, sardonic form, his voice more chocolate than usual, dryly delivering chat-up lines like: "If you think Warrington's exciting, wait till we get to Preston." |
| But soon after their honeymoon, Lomax's post-traumatic stress becomes unbearable and the marriage endangered by his brittle temper and worsening melancholia. Patti learns most of the story from Lomax's friend, former comrade in arms Finlay (Stellan Skarsgård), but it's down to Lomax to banish his demons, especially once he learns his chief torturer escaped justice and is still living, apparently happily, giving tours of the camp where he meted out his punishment. | But soon after their honeymoon, Lomax's post-traumatic stress becomes unbearable and the marriage endangered by his brittle temper and worsening melancholia. Patti learns most of the story from Lomax's friend, former comrade in arms Finlay (Stellan Skarsgård), but it's down to Lomax to banish his demons, especially once he learns his chief torturer escaped justice and is still living, apparently happily, giving tours of the camp where he meted out his punishment. |
| So a cosy love story suddenly plunges into the horrors of war, as we see the Hades-like conditions endured by Lomax (played in younger years by a never-better Jeremy Irvine), and then modulates again, to a complex study in vengeance. From time to time, the script contextualises a little clumsily - "Lomax, my friend, I think we just witnessed the fall of the British empire," said the young Finlay, as they watch the Japanese invade - but the playing and pacing are terrific. | So a cosy love story suddenly plunges into the horrors of war, as we see the Hades-like conditions endured by Lomax (played in younger years by a never-better Jeremy Irvine), and then modulates again, to a complex study in vengeance. From time to time, the script contextualises a little clumsily - "Lomax, my friend, I think we just witnessed the fall of the British empire," said the young Finlay, as they watch the Japanese invade - but the playing and pacing are terrific. |
| Teplitzky finishes with a kind of catharsis rarely on offer: meek and deeply felt, a mature and moving exorcism. | Teplitzky finishes with a kind of catharsis rarely on offer: meek and deeply felt, a mature and moving exorcism. |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |