Rails and Ties (2007)

Fatally Flawed

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. October 27, 2008

Editing Needs To Be Tighter, Some Really Bad Support Acting

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. September 24, 2008

A kind and gentle film

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. September 22, 2008

Good Acting, Decent Plot, SLOOOOW to Watch!!

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! August 23, 2008

Very solid and personal effort

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. July 28, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...