Rails & Ties

This is the directorial debut of Alison Eastwood. Daddy Clint must have taught her his cinema's tricks. That influence is seen, even though this was her first.

Although not a movie without its flaws, it is human, dramatic and real. It's solid on story, drama and actors's performances, particularly the lead actors: Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Bacon and especially Miles Heizer. This boy is sensational! He takes the whole movie alone and makes the movie's best scenes, so realistic is his sorrow. I'm kinda shocked that his filmography is practically TV series and almost no full-length movies. How can that be with a boy this talented?? America doesn't know what it missed!!

Miles Heizer's character (Davey) is, like Kevin Bacon's character said, a strange boy because he is so mature for his age.

I know very little of this movie until I saw it. All I know is that it's about a railroad engineer and his wife who's suffering from cancer. There's another element in the movie that I didn't know about until I saw the movie and it's about a young boy who has a troubled mother. Somehow the lives of the couple and the young boy would intersect literally and tragically. All this sounds like a melodrama from the 1930s. And in many ways it is, but it also has a brutal frankness in it that the 1930s movies didn't have.

The movie stars Kevin Bacon as the train engineer and his wife played by Marcia Gay Harden, we could see that there's a riff in their marriage. He would much rather work than spend time with his wife even though his boss is telling him he could have some time off. She doesn't understand why he's being so distant. It's obvious he's burying himself in work as she faces a dire future. This part of the movie is very frank as we see the despondency both have.

The other element in the movie is the boy played by Miles Heizer. He has a troubled mother, it's obvious he has become the adult in the relationship. He enters the engineer's world angrily and he blamed the engineer for the death of his mother. The engineer's wife would take pity on him and soon he finds himself staying with them. Somehow the tragedy that took the boy's mother would bring something that the boy has never had and the couple thought they lost.

It's really a simple melodrama but it has a frankness in it that they would never consider in the 1930s. One unforgettable scene is when she looked at herself in the mirror and see the scar cancer has left and breaks down, while he was on the other side of the door not knowing what to do. During one argument he blurts out angrily "Because You had cancer", it sounds as if he were angry at her. Obviously he's angry at the disease for what it has taken away from him, the possibility of children and now his wife. Also when the boy was crying out blaming himself for the death of those he love. It's very honest and frank how children sometime blame themselves for things they do not understand.

Credit and blame goes to both the writer Mickey Levy and director Allison Eastwood created a group of characters who are very complex and are facing difficult situations but then it spirals into sentimentality. The story of the engineer and his wife by itself is powerful then add the story of the boy trying to go on with his life and understand what's going on would make the movie even more powerful but when the two story is combined it became too sentimental.

Miss Eastwood's directing style is very similar to that of her father, tell the story in a straightforward way and get out of the way of the actors, The acting is superb, it's obvious that both Mr. Bacon and Miss Harden are very good actors but young Mr. Heizer proves too that he has talent. He's definitely a young talent to keep an eye on.

All in all I think it's a good modern melodrama but with the frankness of modern times but then it spiraled into an almost shameless, unabashed treacle.

I rented this on DVD and am wondering why they took out the Additional Scenes in the movie that are on the Special Features. I was hoping there would be some interviews on the DVD, but alas, had to settle for just the Additional Scenes.

This movie has typical Lifetime TV earmarks, but with a lot more to give. I was especially impressed with Miles Heizer in his role of the young boy. It is a good story that gives both character insight angles of the victim and the accidental killer. I applaud the casting done here. Kevin Bacon's role was perhaps the best choice to play this particularly difficult part, and he conveyed/portrayed it very well. I can't think of any other actor who could have pulled it off.

The emotional dramas did cause me to pull out some hankies, but they did not dwell on this content in an overdone fashion. I am weary of movies that linger on with many scenes of someone dying in bed of cancer (which was not done at all in a great movie "Who Will Love My Children"), but they kept the IV drip bit scenes to a tolerable minimum. The tears were not associated so much to the cancer bit, but was with how the story was put together ... very, very well done.

This young 14-year-old lad, Miles Heizer, is a gem and I really hope to see more of him performing in more films. This movie I recommend when you're in an emotional mood of viewing pleasure. It's definitely worth the rental fee.

To often humans seek out comfort in the embrace of another. It's natural and necessary if we want to remain human. However, the price we pay is terrible when giving our love to parents, loved ones and close friends. In addition, tragic events add to our loss when inexplicably we lose those who are close to us. This film encompasses such a tragic loss when Tom Stark (Kevin Bacon) is at the controls of his train when Laura Danner (Bonnie Root), a suicidal mother parks her car upon the tracks and awaits death with her son. Despite his best efforts, Stark is unable to prevent the accident. The woman is killed and her son Davey Danner (Miles Heizer) blames her death on the engineer. With the accident troubling his mind, Stark is further burdened with his ailing wife who is dying of cancer. In addition, Davey becomes an orphan, sent to a foster home from which he runs away from and seeks refuge with Stark and (Marcia Harden) his sickly wife. The story is deeply complex and extremely ladened with anxiety, conflicting emotion and troubling situations. It attempts to intertwine both family understanding and compassion grief. Although Kevin Bacon is superb in his acting and is ably supported by Miles who is equally great, some selected scenes are slow to develop, morosely dark and too often the audience is hampered with confused and poorly directed endings. Nevertheless, the story is awash with deep feelings and emotional surges which confront human beings everyday. ***

Maybe some say this is a typical "woman movie". I'd not say so, but there surely is a tendency towards women more appreciating it than the men. It's not, however, much of a love story, it's a rather bittersweet tale with ASTONISHING ACTORS from A to Z.

It's a movie that makes you feel human. You'll most probably shed some tears and laugh at some of the subtle jokes, some will do so more than others, but all in all it's not a dramatic hell rise like in BREAKING THE WAVES, though Bacon's character surely is a guy you'd like to kick in the butt just to 'wake up' or something. But then, the end comes.

I can recommend that if you're out for a softer, heart-felt DVD experience.