John Hurt, Brenda Blethyn, and Pauline Flanagan star in "Night Train," a 1998 film directed by John Lynch.
An ex-con, Michael Poole, rents a room in the home of Alice Mooney (Blethyn) and her mother (Flanagan). Of course they know nothing about him. They hear him moving furniture, banging, and hammering.
Michael knows people are after him, and he knows why. These people will stop at nothing, including torturing a man for information. Gross scene, very disturbing.
Michael gets a job in an abattoir and, for the squeamish, just close your eyes. It's the grossest thing I have ever seen in a movie. I almost threw up. OMG it was awful.
One day the nosy mother goes into the room while he's gone and nearly kills herself tripping over his gigantic train set -- complete with mountains, train stations, and rails and trains all over the place. His favorite is the Orient Express, and he has the full route on his set.
Michael shows it to Alice, and gradually, the two fall in love. She has never had much of a life, thanks to her mother, and he wants to stop playing with trains and get on one. He invites her to go with him on the Orient Express. By now, he knows he has to get out of town. She accepts, not realizing that the people after him now know where he worked and where he lives.
Despite getting sick to my stomach (I don't eat meat, thank God) this is a beautifully acted film about two people at the end of the line. Blethyn, looking so pretty here,has a need for love, and evokes real sympathy, as she has to live with her insulting, nasty mother and doesn't think she can leave her. Hurt is wonderful as an aging, lost man who is sick of running and wants to grab at life.
Flanagan plays an unlikeable woman, but her meanness comes from her own sadness, and a real desire to keep her daughter from suffering as she did. It's also a meanness borne out of selfishness; she's afraid to lose her daughter's care.
The neighbors -- well, they're interesting, and I'll leave it at that. Let's just say clothes disappear off clotheslines.
I absolutely loved this film for the beautiful portrayals and the story. That's saying a lot, because I nearly turned it off. I'm glad I didn't.
