Rails & Ties

Rails & Ties, Alison Eastwood’s directorial debut, is an extraordinarily slow-moving and sporadically overwrought effort that’s ultimately redeemed by Kevin Bacon’s expectedly engrossing performance. Bacon stars as Tom, a morose train conductor who finds a new lease on life after a young boy (Miles Heizer’s David) comes to live with him and his cancer-afflicted wife (Marcia Gay Harden’s Megan). Saddled with a decidedly unimpressive screenplay by Micky Levy, Rails & Ties certainly has its work cut out for it in terms of winning over the viewer. Levy’s predilection for dialogue that’s just unreasonably on-the-nose (eg a co-worker of Tom’s exclaims, “you’re dead inside and everybody knows it!”) often threatens to negate the movie’s positive attributes, and there’s little doubt that the screenwriter’s relentless emphasis on melodrama ultimately strips the film of whatever authenticity it may have possessed. Eastwood’s perfunctory direction doesn’t entirely do the film any favors; though her willingness to allow the story to unfold slowly is admirable, it often feels as though she’s trying too hard to emulate the methodical, deliberate tone of her father’s movies. Still, Bacon’s searing work, coupled with the simple yet thoroughly effective conclusion, is strong enough to allow one to overlook the film’s various deficiencies.

**1/2 out of ****