Rails & Ties

NEW YORK (CNS) -- An intimate, moving drama about the nature of familial love, "Rails & Ties" (Warner Bros.) takes on daunting themes with -- for the most part -- a deft touch.

When Megan Stark (Marcia Gay Harden), a woman in her forties, learns that her breast cancer has spread and is now terminal, she accepts the inevitability of death, but wonders whether she has missed out on life, especially by not having children. Her emotionally repressed husband, Tom (Kevin Bacon), meanwhile, refuses to face the prospect of losing her.

Instead of spending quality time with his wife, Tom, a railroad engineer, buries himself in his work. Until, that is, Laura Danner (Bonnie Root), a mentally ill single mother, drives her car onto the tracks in front of Tom's train hoping to kill both herself and her young son, Davey (Miles Heizer).

Though the boy escapes, his mother is killed and Tom is suspended pending an investigation. Now forced to spend time together, Tom and Megan recognize just how bankrupt their marriage has become. Megan prepares to move out and make the most of her remaining time. Having escaped a strict foster home, however, the orphaned Davey finds his way to the Starks' doorstep, demanding to know why Tom failed to slow down the train.

What begins as a confrontation rapidly changes when Megan reaches out to the boy. Before long, Tom and Megan agree to shelter him surreptitiously, despite the further risk this poses to Tom's future. Can Davey's presence revive the Starks' failing relationship and reconcile Tom to the truth of his wife's situation?

"Rails & Ties" has a plot that tugs shamelessly at every heartstring. How often, after all, is a boy in danger of losing two mothers in one movie? Yet in directing her first feature, Alison Eastwood (who has clearly inherited some strong cinematic DNA from father Clint) manages an understated approach that generally forestalls sentimentality.

Also contributing to the film's success are strong performances from all three principals. Bacon is especially good at registering the taciturn Tom's emotions.

You should know that Micky Levy's script shows Laura to be a Christian fanatic who prays obsessively and quotes the Psalms in defense of her impending suicide. Additionally, when Davey attempts to say grace before a meal, Tom storms out of the room, and Megan later excuses the boy's action as though he had done something wrong. Those matters aside, "Rails & Ties" works as a hopeful, though spare, tale about the redemptive power of love. And its basic moral stance -- that Tom and Megan's marriage, however beleaguered, is still worth saving -- is commendable.

The film contains problematic religious elements, upper female nudity, a tense accident scene, one use of the f-word, two crude words, one crass term and one use of profanity. It is acceptable for older teens. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops