Movie Review- RAILS & TIES
HEADLINE: ** Deeply Touching Drama **TITLE: RAILS & TIES
Quality: * * * Acceptability: -2
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: LL
Violence: V
Sex: S
Nudity: N
RATING: PG-13
RELEASE: October 26, 2007
TIME: 101 minutes
STARRING: Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, Miles Heizer, Marin Hinkle, Eugene Byrd, and Bonnie Root
DIRECTOR: Alison Eastwood
PRODUCERS: Robert Lorenz, Peer Oppenheimer and Barrett Stuart
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: None
WRITER: Micky Levy
BASED ON THE NOVEL/PLAY BY: N/A
DISTRIBUTOR: Warner Bros. Pictures
CONTENT: (BB, C, LL, V, S, N, AA, M) Strong moral worldview with some overt positive references to Jesus Christ, prayer and the Holy Trinity that are mitigated by some other issues, including despondent woman prays before she goes to commit suicide and troubled man is conflicted about another character's expressions of faith (man reacts negatively in one scene but positively and compassionately in another scene); five obscenities (including one "f" word), two strong profanities and three light profanities; some dramatic violence such as train smashes into car, boy rages against man who accidentally killed his mother, upset man angrily tears up train display he has built in his house, boy hits mirror and cuts his hand, and man comforts grieving boy banging his head against a wall; kissing and implied sex between married couple; naturalistic upper female nudity as woman with terminal cancer looks at her surgery scar from an earlier breast cancer operation; alcohol use and suicidal despondent young woman has issues of alcohol abuse; no smoking; and, married couple waits to tell authorities about boy who has run away from foster care and social worker fails to report them when she sees how boy and couple are benefiting from their new relationship, but issue is resolved positively in the end.
GENRE: Drama
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
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Richard D. Parsons, Chairman/CEO
Time Warner
Barry M. Meyer, Chairman/CEO
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
(A Time Warner company)
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Burbank, CA 91522-0001
Phone: (818) 954-6000
Website: www.movies.warnerbros.com
SUMMARY: RAILS & TIES tells what happens when a train engineer and his terminally ill wife find themselves caring for the orphaned boy whose despondent mother killed herself by placing her car in front of the engineer's oncoming passenger train. RAILS & TIES is a modest, deeply touching, life-affirming drama with some positive Christian content, but there is brief foul language and a scene of naturalistic nudity.
IN BRIEF:
RAILS & TIES shows what happens when train engineer Tom Stark, whose wife, Megan, has terminal cancer, makes a snap decision to hit a car driven onto the tracks by a suicidal single mother. Tom was afraid that making an emergency stop might derail his passenger train. Tom and Megan's life is further disrupted when the dead mother's young son, Davey, runs away from foster care to confront Tom. Megan's compassion for Davey provides an opportunity for spiritual and emotional healing. Despite tragedy, joy is found and lives are transformed for the better.
RAILS & TIES stars Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden and Miles Heizer in three compelling performances. It is a deeply touching movie that also has a strong moral worldview. There are even some positive references to Jesus, prayer and the Holy Trinity, but Tom is conflicted about Davey's expressions of faith and the movie's climactic, morally uplifting scenes don't return to its Christian themes. RAILS & TIES also contains some foul language and brief nudity when Megan mournfully looks at the surgery scar on her chest from the cancer now claiming her life. Thus, MOVIEGUIDEŽ advises extreme caution.
