| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Rails and Ties |  | |
Rails and Ties
Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden give soaring performances in Rails & Ties, director Alison Eastwood’s moving tale of people in crisis and emotions at the brink. Bacon plays Tom Stark, a train engineer unable to face his wife’s (Harden) illness. Then a terrifying railway collision leaves a little boy orphaned. Tom takes the boy into his home and – step by step, strength by strength – learns how to bond with the wife he adores by opening his heart to a boy who needs the security of a devoted family.
Manufacturer: Warner Brothers
Price: $5.73
 Rails and Ties
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| User Reviews |  | Fatally Flawed
rating: 1
My wife and I looked forward to seeing this move because we have two adopted children, and in our family there are about 36 adopted children. Unfortunately, we were profoundly disappointed in this movie. What could have been a wonderful store was fatally flawed by the open dishonesty of the adults. First, rather than trying to work through the system to adopt David, when he shows up at their doorstep, they take him in and then have to hide David from the authorities. They openly lied to the social worker when she suspected he was with the engineer and his wife. Could any responsible person even remotely think they would have any chance at adoption after deceiving the authorities about the child?
In defense of the engineer's wife, knowing that she was dying of cancer, she would know that she'd have no chance at adoption. However, even that was selfish. Here is a boy who had just lost his mother, and now the engineer's wife was trying to cultivate a loving relationship with the boy - only to leave him with another sudden loss of another significant woman in his life. Such selfishness is inexcusable. Could the boy ever form a mature relationship with a woman . . . to whom he would subconsciously be constantly expecting some tragedy to befall?
For those with adopted kids, the movie is worth watching, but not one I would make an extra effort to seek out. The thought kept occurring to me that this movie must be Kevin Bacon's effort to counteract any lingering impression of him as a child molester in the movie 'The Woodsman.' In the end, he does go to the authorities with David, but we are fortunately spared the separation from him that David would certainly face after his surrogate parents deceived the system.
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Editing Needs To Be Tighter, Some Really Bad Support Acting
rating: 3
So this is an Eastwood family movie, Allison directs, Clint produces, and Kyle writes the soundtrack. Sadly there wasn't an Eastwood that can edit. The film could be 20 minutes shorter and lose absolutely nothing in emotional build up or impact. Honestly, this is a marginally 1 hour movie.
The good, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, and the boy Miles Heizer. Miles did a remarkably good job at his age, he was believable as a boy that age.
The bad, just about every other character. Sadly they all seemed to be reading their lines.
The train scenes, and Oh I love my trains, were not really all that wonderful. The train thread didn't work very well with the story line. There wasn't much of a metaphor here to really sink your teeth into.
My apologies to those that really loved this film and cried. I just didn't buy it. Didn't really love these characters enough to care what happened to them. It was a very sad movie that was just way too predictable.
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A kind and gentle film
rating: 4
There are many things to like about his film. Like, how about "Kind Woman," my favorite Buffalo Springfield song, in the background at one point--lovely song, perfect placement? Among the most annoying aspects of much contemporary cinema (and TV too for that matter) is the spacious houses that the middle class live in. Roseanne's blue-collar kitchen was the size of the kitchen at the White House. This film is cramped, moving from a small disheleved apartment to a small, crowded house, with a garage usurped by a model train. These are the lives of ordinary folks, living as best they can.
The gripe against this film is probably that "things are never so simple." But I would argue that they often are, and only our narcissistic conceit makes them appear more complicated. People do best when they have someone to love and someone to love them. When a childless couple has allowed a wall to be erected, a child can enable them to not only focus on that child, but on each other as well. Love is, as I repeatedly say, not a feeling, but an action. This couple, broken and lonely and scared and isolated, found a way to look outside themselves at something larger. And in doing so, by placing someone other than themselves at the center of their universe, were able to remember why they married 15 years earlier. And the fact that Kevin Bacon had no father makes the pro-family message even more poignant. We learn how to father from our fathers; when two fatherless boys meet, one can grow into the father role, but only with lots of encouragement and love from his wife.
Now, this film is far from perfect. Kevin Bacon, looking indeed like a young Clint, is given too little to do. I realize he is the brooding loner, who had to be goaded into dating his future wife, but there is too much silence and stasis in here. The ending was both predictable and way too pat. But the emotions were real. They worked. My wife wept several times throughout. Life isn't smooth. Easy. Or simple. But it can be worked on. It can be improved, even in ugly circumstances. Though the tears were legitimate, the tale was upbeat.
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Good Acting, Decent Plot, SLOOOOW to Watch!!
rating: 2
It took the course of several days to watch this movie it was that slow to watch on dvd. So, I kept putting off watching the movie.... Nice story, good acting and that is about all I can say about this movie!
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Very solid and personal effort
rating: 4
Tight drama that takes a slightly different perspective on loss and redemption. Althought not perfect, it's a strong drama with an ultimately positive message about those who struggle through tragedy.
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Rails and Ties
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