Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh until Thu 06 Feb @ times vary

Jonathan Teplitzky / Australia/UK / 2013 / 116 mins

Prisoner of war and railway enthusiast Eric Lomax’s memoir, The Railway Man, was a bestseller; winning two literary prizes when first published in 1995. It recounts Lomax’s life as a young officer in the British Army, being used as slave labour and tortured by the Japanese Imperial Army, and the subsequent years spent trying to come to terms with the experience. Jonathan Teplitzky’s film is a slow and steady burner that will quietly move audiences with its brutality, frankness and delicate resolve.

The production begins in 1980, when Lomax (Colin Firth) meets and falls in love with his second wife Patti (Nicole Kidman), after a chance encounter on the train from Crewe to Glasgow. The film charts key moments and meetings that lead Lomax to discovering that his torturer is still alive. Overwhelmed with resentment and continually haunted by the past, Lomax seeks to confront Nagase (Hiroyuki Sanada).

The movie does a lot to highlight how for such a long time, there was a complete lack of understanding of what we now term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It doesn’t criticise the coping mechanisms in place, simply acknowledging that there were few options: you survived or you didn’t. The grey area is explored through Lomax’s long-time friend and fellow officer Findlay (Stellan Skarsgård), who has life – but nothing to live for. While The Railway Man captures the severity and absurdity of the situation, the helplessness and the desperation of those fighting and surrendering in war, the timescale is unclear which at times can dilute the intended impact. Nonetheless, the conclusion is powerful and humbling as Lomax comes to forgive Nagase. The picture is summed up in a brief but astute sentiment from Lomax: it is not about the tragedy of war; it’s about the crimes of war, the conscious decisions people make and the motivation for making them.