The Railway Man

Colin Firth is quietly intense as Eric Lomax, a former British officer who was captured by the Japanese and put to work on the Burma-Thailand railway during World War II. He was treated brutally by the Japanese military police, and the trauma he endured there had long-lasting effects on his life. In middle age, his new wife Patti (Nicole Kidman) is determined to help him find a way through.

This is a thoughtful, generally restrained film that swings from a sweet romance to horrific flashbacks as Patti finds herself in a situation she has no power to understand or control. Eventually, Lomax faces a decision. Will he live in the anger and pain of the past, exact his revenge, or move on to forgiveness? Based on the life (and autobiography) of the real Eric Lomax, The Railway Man offers fodder for discussion both of forgiveness and of wartime ethics. On disc now. (Weinstein)