Rails & Ties DVD Review

First-time director Alison Eastwood (who acted in Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, among other films), daughter of Clint, crafts a heartbreaking, uplifting tale in Rails & Ties. The film stars Kevin Bacon as railroad engineer Tom Stark, whose wife, Megan (Marcia Gay Harden), a nurse, has terminal breast cancer.

My Rating:

Then there’s young Davey Danner (Miles Heizer), who takes on the role of parental caregiver to his severely depressed mom (Bonnie Root). When she takes them on a car ride to “see the train”, she’s actually plotting to stop the car on the tracks and take her own life, as well as that of her son’s. When she stops her car in the path of Tom’s train, he stays by the books and opts to gradually slow the train while sounding the horn, rather than undertake a dangerous quick stop on a curve.

Davey escapes the car, but his mother is killed. While Tom sticks by his decision, he is put on leave from work, and with too much time on his hands, he has to face all that he stands to lose. Davey tracks him down to meet the man who killed his mother, and things get even more complicated as Tom, Megan and Davey form a makeshift family of sorts.

Bacon (Death Sentence, Where The Truth Lies, Mystic River) is excellent as the intense, conflicted husband struggling to pretend his life is fine while everything is crumbling around him. Harden (Into The Wild, The Dead Girl, The Hoax) does an impressive job as a woman faced with her own mortality and not willing to compromise on the remainder of her life, however short it may be. Young Heizer does well with this heavy role, especially considering age and short acting career.

Rails & Ties also stars Marin Hinkle (Friends With Money, Dark Blue), Eugene Byrd (“Heroes”, 8 Mile), Bonnie Root, Steve Easton (The Black Dalhia, When A Stranger Calls), Laua Ceron (“ER”), Margo Martindale (The Savages, “Medium”), Kathryn Joosten (The TV Set, Wedding Crashers), and Steven M. Porter (Flags Of Our Fathers, For Your Consideration).

Screenwriter Micky Levy (who wrote Detour) and Eastwood work well together on this film, taking what could have been a sappy movie of the week and instead making a delicately crafted drama that, in the end, sends a positive message.

Rails & Ties is presented in anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1, with audio in Dolby Digital 5.1, as well as subtitles in Spanish, French and English for the hearing-impaired. Extras include four additional scenes.

It’s rated PG-13 “for mature thematic elements, an accident scene, brief nudity and momentary strong language.”

While Rails & Ties isn’t cheerful by any means, it is an uplifting film about love, life and family in the face of unforeseen tragedy.

I give Rails & Ties 3 stars out of 5 stars.