There is a glut of true stories at the cinemas currently and this is another example. Colin Firth plays Eric Lomax, a railway enthusiast in Scotland, who, by chance, meets newly separated Nicole Kidman (Patricia) on a train in 1981. After what seems to be a whirlwind romance, they marry. However, any chance of wedded bliss seems to be scuppered by Eric’s inability to get over his experiences in a prisoner of war camp in Burma following the fall of Singapore in 1942.
This clearly has the opportunity to be a powerful and moving piece. The reason it isn’t is down to a number of factors. The flashback scenes in the war add little to the story. We all know the horrors of those camps, and aside from the irony of a train lover being forced to help with the building of the railway, all those scenes do is reduce the time allowed to tell the story of Eric in the 1980s.
As a result his seeming sudden mental deterioration after his marriage is not properly explained. Has he really just got worse, and if so why? There is a scene where he threatens a debt collector with a knife when he doesn’t pay his rates. Was that a one off, or has been acting like that before? None of that is explained. The other weakness is in the plot towards the end of the film. I don’t want to give any spoilers but the ending seems anticlimatic and forced.
Now, both of those criticisms may be a little unfair, depending on how close to the real events the story is, and I would expect that Lomax’s book goes into much more depth. The other problem with the film is the casting. Firth is good, but he seems far too young for the role, as does Kidman. Most odd, is the casting of Stellan Skarsgard as Lomax’s friend, Finlay. In the war, when played by Sam Reid, the character is clearly English but when he is older he has mysteriously developed a Swedish accent! I suspect that with a name like that, and living in Scotland, the character was, in reality, Scottish…
On the plus side, the scene depicting Eric and Pat’s first meeting is a gem and Gary Phillips cinematography is excellent in scenes from both the war and the 80s. Overall, though a big disappointment.
Rating: 4.5 out of 10