Rail & Ties

“Rails & Ties” is the first feature for director Alison Eastwood, offspring of Clint. She’s been around for a while, albeit in front of the camera in some of Daddy’s films like “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” She’s chosen her material wisely in the form of “Rails & Ties”, a sad and intimate look at a not-so-typical family.

The film follows three people whose lives are disrupted after a tragic train accident. When train conductor Tom (Kevin Bacon) hits and kills a woman who has parked her car with herself and her 11 year old son David (Miles Heizer) inside it, he is forced into taking a break from the job that he loves to recouperate and spend time with his ailing wife Megan (Marcia Gay Harden). Stricken with progressive cancer, Megan and Tom are at odds with how to spend her remaining days, as Tom is content to imagine nothing is wrong and continue to plug along as a train conductor. When David shows up at the couple’s door, Megan has the chance to experience motherhood- something she has always craved. This unconventional family bonds together through tragedy and gives Megan- who lives by Dylan Thomas’ immortal words to “rage against the dying light” finds solace and happiness in her final hours with her new family.

Eastwood does an impressive job with the difficult subject matter and infuses it with subtlety and even humour. A compassionate film, there are similarities in Alison’s style to that of her father Clint’s in both the subject of the American family and the simple and unobtrusive shots.

Kevin Bacon gives a great performance of a difficult man, reminiscient of his work in “Murder in the First” in that he goes beyond expectations in his quiet rage and sorrow. Marcia Gay Harden is wonderful. her performance resonates throguh the film and projects the love and compassion her character feels for her two troubled men outwards. Her performance resonated with the cancer survivors in the room who applauded her performance as incredibly true to life during the TIFF Q&A session, bringing tears to more than a few eyes.

The standout in the film is young David, played by Miles Heizer, who for all his lighthearted charm and awe at being so well received in a large theatre on his first starring role, was incredibly gracious. He had difficult dramatic scenes which he tackled with the ease of a seasoned pro.

“Rails & Ties” is a moving film, that speaks to living with illness and experiencing death and how it resonates through families- whether they are blood relatives, or makeshift families of friends and non-relations. The film demonstrates the grieving process, and how like Megan, it is in our best itnerest to stya together and “rage against the dying light.”