UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Amy Adler Megan (Marcia Gay Harden) is fighting a third occurrence of breast cancer. As a nurse, her life has been fulfilling but, lately, she is struggling. Realizing that she may not whip the deadly disease again, she is longing to take short vacations and make the most of her time. She especially regrets that she and her husband, Tom (Kevin Bacon) never had children. As for Tom, he is quiet and has trouble with communication. Most days, he goes straight from his job as a railroad engineer, when the work day is done, to the garage where his elaborate miniature train set runs. Therefore, he is not showing strong visible support for Megan's condition. The two of them, however, are about to receive a significant jolt. One day, a suicidal, mentally ill mother places her car on a railroad track, wanting to end her life. Her elementary aged son, Davey, who has been ordered out of the car, knows what's coming but can't stop her. Sure enough, the train that Tom is running strikes the car, for the engineer couldn't stop in time without a serious derailment. Davey is placed in foster care. What the authorities don't count on is that Davey is very smart, runs away from the foster family and makes a beeline to Tom's, for the lad has discovered who was in charge of the train on the day of the accident. After some shouting and crying, Megan and Tom keep the boy with them, hoping to get him into a better state of mind. One day turns into two, then three, then more. Its just what Megan needs, a child to love and a diversion from her problems. Its also good for Tom, who needs to learn how to "open up". Will they become a family? This is a touching story, replete with serious topics like suicide, cancer, childlessness, depression and losing a parent. As such, although it is quite somber, the movie has the ability to help viewers with similar issues. Harden and Bacon deliver strong performances and the other cast members do good work, too. Settings, costumes, script and direction are well done also. Do you like tear-generating films or are you and anyone you love struggling with cancer or loss of a relative? Getting this film might prove instrumental in confronting these matters.

MBunge Rails and Ties is a sweetly sad little tearjerker that doesn't let a fairly implausible story stop it from being legitimately moving. It's living proof that the characters you care the most about are the ones who can be imperfect and unlikable at times.Tom Stark (Kevin Bacon) is a railroad engineer. He's one of these guys whose job defines everything about him. And now, Tom's job has become a shelter from the pain of seeing breast cancer return for a third time in his wife Megan (Marcia Gay Hardin). This time it's gotten into the bone and there's nothing that can be done. But while Tom seeks refuge from Megan's illness running the train from Simi Valley to Seattle, the profound troubles of another woman reach out for him. The mentally unwell Laura Danner (Bonnie Root) loads her son Davey (Miles Heizer) into their car and parks it on the tracks in front of Tom's train. As Davey struggles to pull his suicidal mother to safety, Tom makes a terrible choice. Rather than hit the emergency break and risk the lives of all his passengers by sending the train off the rails, Tom lets it plow right through the car.His mother dead, Davey is placed into a foster home, which he promptly runs away from and sets out to find Tom. Just as Megan is about to leave Tom and spend her final days doing all the things Tom won't do with her, Davey shows up at their house. After an initial explosion of anger, the lonely and grief-stricken boy finds himself clinging to Megan and Tom as the only things he was left in the world. To Megan, Davey becomes the son she never had. To Tom, he's a bridge back to Megan's love, a love that became frozen in anger and fear and resentment. This new family, born out of one tragedy and silently marching toward another, finds joy and hope in each other that they could never find in themselves.I have to admit upfront that the whole "kid's mother gets killed and he becomes like a son to the guy who killed her" is a bit hard to swallow. I'm no headshrinker, but that strikes me as a wildly unhealthy situation that would not lead to anything heartfelt. It would more likely lead to someone getting stabbed in the heart.If you're willing to go along with the premise, however, Rails and Ties is a lovely tale. Primarily that's due to the fine work of Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Hardin. They're both excellent as a husband and wife that have been worn out by cancer. Bacon portrays Tom as a man who can only deal with such an awful situation by shutting down emotionally. Hardin lets us see Megan as a woman who's turned inward because she hasn't been able to get anything she needs from her husband in a long time. You can tell that Tom and Megan used to love each other but are now held together only by the memory of that affection. And what makes these performances work is that Bacon and Hardin are willing to give them an unsympathetic edge. Tom's refusal to acknowledge things that make him uncomfortable leads him to act like a jerk. Megan's selfish disgust with Tom's stony exterior prevents her from being just a poor victim. Tom still loves her and Megan knows that, but at the beginning of the story she simply doesn't care anymore. Those elements of unvarnished humanity prevent this film from wallowing in syrupy melodrama.Director Alison Eastwood also shows that she's got her father's firm and unadorned directorial eye. There's nothing particularly flashy about what she does here, but she manages to give a different look and feel to the same sort of moments and scenes we've all seen in other films like this. By disdaining the most emotionally manipulative storytelling styles and techniques, Eastwood imbues this movie with a sense of reality that creeps its way into your heart and doesn't wash you away in a flood of artificial sentiment.Now, Miles Heizer isn't terrible as Davey but he's not one of these freakish child actors that blows you away on screen. He doesn't really have the depth that this role calls for at times, which is probably a good thing for him personally. Child actors capable of such emotional range tend to have some difficulties growing into adults. Yeah, I'm looking at you Edward Furlong and Haley Joel Osment.If you want to have yourself a good cry and not feel ashamed at how easily and crudely a movie tricked you into it, watch Rails and Ties. I'm not much one from having my heart strings tugged, but this film played me like a ukulele.

tomasetti The movie was very heart wrenching. It is all very real for everyone in the audience, thanks to Patricia Hayden's superb portrayal of a woman ready to give up the fight.The only issue I had with the movie lies in the boy who lost his mother to suicide - he goes on to blame the train conductor! Violent fits of rage both directly after the accident, and midway through the movie when he seeks homage. The sons knows as soon as his mother parks her car on the tracks what she is trying to do. He tries in vein to pull her from the car. The train is already coming too fast - however he feels that it's not basic physics, rather someones fault.Now, it's possible that the boy - after losing his mother - is looking to blame someone - anyone - for this tradegy. That is a common coping mechanism. However there's no way that the coping mechanism kicks in minutes after the accident. When you see the kid in the first 10 minutes of the movie being forcibly restrained by police officers trying to go-for-throat on the conductor, you can't help but to begin to begin to dislike the child (not totally).However, whatever redeeming qualities there are in the boy go out the window when he rejects hospitality from what looks like a temporary foster home. He does not smoothly make the transition from poor kid losing his mom to adopted child of this new couple. He risks almost becoming a protagonist within the first 20 minutes of the movie.I believe the writers could have created another vehicle for the boy to intrude himself into the train conductor's life other than blind rage towards a man who was just doing his job. Or, if they kept that vehicle, more should have been done in the way of exploring the boy's grief. Either way, cut out the scenes that force the audience into either disliking the boy or thinking there's something perhaps mentally awry with him.6 out of 10 stars

Andreas Niedermayer What touched me the most is that despite the very very sad undertone caused by the omnipresence of death, both Kevin Bacon (Tom) and Miles Heizer (Davey), by fully embracing their pain and accepting death, are able to gain strength and really start living. What do I mean by this? Tom and Davey are confronted with the ultimate pain of losing or having lost their most beloved people in life. This is a heavy burden to carry. Whenever you see Tom, you see my wife is dying of cancer and I can't do anything about it written in his face. In Davey's case it's I have just lost my mom. That's a very depressing situation for both of them, where despair mingles with desperation, anger and emptiness. Both of them are on the verge of losing everything and yielding to the pain. However, from the moment Davey starts to live with Tom and his wife Megan, a subtle healing process is initiated. I very much agree with the reviewer above, Megan is healing Tom and herself when she decides to take in and look after Davey. For Davey it is not only a path at the end of which he can forgive the man who he deemed responsible for the death of his mother, it is also a path into a better future that allows him to leave death and pain behind and start his young life anew. The death of his mom allowed him to meet Tom and Megan and by the most unlikely circumstances he grows very close with them. When Megan's condition deteriorates and she is about to die, he blames himself and thinks God is punishing him. He has to accept death again, and this time it hurts just as much. However, he has found a place to be, he has found love, and although he is losing a most beloved person again, by embracing death and the pain, he wins a new life at Tom's side, a better life then he would have ever thought he would live. As for Tom, his life is already falling apart before the fateful accident. His wife is dying, he has no children, and when Davey shows up, he risks losing his job. You can feel the emptiness inside of him in every moment, which is grand acting on Kevin Bacon's part. Tom's working mate actually reproaches him for being dead inside. He is really not interested in Davey when he knocks on his door. Yet he realizes that Megan finds a lot of comfort in taking the boy in. Tom and Davey confront each other and their pain, they slowly establish a most unlikely bond, and at the time Megan is dying, they have found a new meaning in life. They help each other out, they overcame their individual pain, which becomes a common pain, and from this common pain they are able to rise together. Death has given both of them a new life, a new meaning in life, and at the very end they are stronger than they ever were and ready to usher into a future that, growing out from so much depression and sadness, holds the promise of life and love and the prospect of happiness.