When Life Comes Apart, Love Puts It Back Together (Rails and Ties (DVD))

Name: spencer_hawken

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Product:	Rails and Ties (DVD)
Date:	05/07/08 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Touching story of death, grief, and found love

Disadvantages: None

There is not just one talented person in the Eastwood house, Alison Eastman the daughter of Clint delivers a wonderfully touching tale of terminal illness, suicide, and a need to be loved. Rails and Ties is an outstandingly moving movie in the same vein as The Champ and Kramer Vs Kramer.

Megan Stark (Marcia Gay Harden) and Laura Danner (Bonnie Root) have something in common, both are seriously ill and both are going to die, what, when, and how are unknown but both contemplate suicide. While both contemplate the act only one goes through with her plans, but of concern to Laura is what to do with her son Danny (Miles Heizer). In a totally selfish act Laura opts to not only end her life but to end the life of her young and much loving son. Danny is obsessed with trains, and his need to see the wonderful Starliner train gives Lara the opportunity to bring their lives to an end. Driving to a vantage point Laura waits for the train to appear on the horizon, as it does she calmly drives the car on the track and slips into a deep unconsciousness. Danny is left frantically trying to free his mother from the car, but she is a dead weight, the train fast approaching. And then in an instant it is all over, Danny escapes from the car as the Starliner savagely rips into it, ending the life of Laura forever.

Megan has something else in common with Laura, Megan's husband Tom (Kevin Bacon) was driving the train that ended Laura's life. Rails and Ties looks at the power of loss, grief, dealing with impending death, and the guilt you feel for ending the life of someone.

I had no expectation to enjoy Rails and Ties, I had seen a number of clips and it all just seemed a little bit gloomy for my liking. I had just finished watching a gloomy tale; I had no desire to watch another. To my amazement and despite how the story might sound there was as much joy to Rails and Ties as there was grief; in fact loss for one brings happiness for others.

After death it's the relationship that Danny has with Tom that keep the movies momentum going, initially looking for revenge there are hidden depths to this relationship and the therapeutic nature of Danny's arrival on Megan's life.

There are loads of big glowing moments in the movie, as the forces of evil move in and are either defeated or decide to abandon their quest. And it's in these little battles that you get those glowing moments, you feel elated by aspects of the movie so much so that you really don't want it to end.

I mean no disrespect to Alison Eastwood, but I can envisage Clint being on set rather a lot, guiding her and helping her. The reason I say this is simply because she has such an amazing eye for a debut director, every single thing is thought of, every scene like a lavish portrait bought to life for all to see. The focus on the characters and the importance they play is not something that is either over or understated, she has them framed rather like the picture she paints just right.

What I loved about the movie is the answer to a question, I guess if I had given enough thought to the question I could have answered it myself but to see exact specifics answered clears a lot of things up in my mind. Ever watch a movie end see a train about to hit something, wondering why it has to hit it rather than stop? You experience firsthand what happens in the control deck of a train, the actions the crew take, the precautions and why they just cannot hit the brakes.

For those unlikely to see the movie in a hurry, or simply just wanting to know I'll tell you. If a train carrying more than three carriages is travelling at more than 35 miles per hour, the chances are hitting the brakes would flip each carriage causing untold fatalities. As the sequence unravels you see Bacon's character trying to reduce the speed from 65 to an acceptable speed, only however managing despite his best efforts only to reduce the speed to 48 miles per hour. It's this sort of detail; regardless of how obvious helps to make the movie. Any other movie and the crash would happen and there would be no real analysis of the reasons why the impact took place.

There is a lot of deceitfulness in the movie, not in a bad sense but over silly issues like the way Tom and Megan deal with Danny, effectively raising him rather than handing him into social services. When the social services turn up they develop an elaborate series of lies to through the social worker off track. But it's this workers reactions that throw the movie on another magical spin.

I loved Rails and Ties, the performances of Bacon and Harden are just legendary, Harden plays a remarkably accurate portrayal of a woman with limited time left to spend in this world. While Bacon goes through a believable series of trails and depressions coming to grips with the fact that both his wife is dying and that he denied her the one thing she truly wanted... Children. Miles Heizer is a talented young actor, who also delivers a performance admirable because having spent time with a dying woman he spends time with another, like every child Danny believes that he is the cause of the illnesses that surround the two women of the movie, this is a tough act for a young actor to pull off to accurately deliver a compassionate and accurate portrayal of a young boy rocked to his very core by guilt.

Rails and Ties never made me cry, or got me even close; but it's still one of the more moving movies of the year and incredibly likely to become somewhat of a classic as the years roll on.

The movie is in UK cinemas from the back end of the month.

Summary: Lives intersect after tragedy strikes