Metacritic Film

Rails & Ties

Starring Marcia Gay Harden, Miles Heizer, and Kevin Bacon

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic elements, an accident scene, brief nudity and momentary strong language

Warner Bros.
Drama
96 minutes | Color
USA
Released In Theaters October 26, 2007

Tom and Megan Stark always thought there would be time--—time to have children, time to take that trip to San Francisco, time to fix the problems in their marriage. But Megan's illness and Tom's inability to face the possibility of losing her are stealing all the time they have left. All Tom can do is bury himself in his job as a train conductor, where at least he feels in control and everything runs on a predetermined track--until now. Tom's train hits a car on the tracks in a tragic turn of events that, while not his fault, may still cost him his job. Worse, a young woman is dead and her son, Davey, has been left to cope with the loss of his mother, the guilt that he could not save her not only from the train but from herself...and the anger at the man he holds responsible: Tom Stark. The accident puts the Starks and Davey on their own collision course. But instead of leading to tragedy, this crossing could mean new hope for a woman who has only one chance left to fulfill her dreams, for a man who must learn to open his heart before it's too late, and for a young boy who has never known the true meaning of family. (Warner Bros.)

WRITTEN BY
Micky Levy

DIRECTED BY
Alison Eastwood

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

44 / 100

Critic Reviews

63	The Globe and Mail (Toronto) The film's best and most carefully shaded performance belongs to Bacon.
63	Chicago Sun-Times I found the opening third tremendously intriguing and involving, I thought the emotions were so real they could be touched, but then the film lost its way and fell into the clutches of sentimental melodrama.
60	The New York Times Everything looks professional if undistinguished.
60	Variety Reserved, careful and largely predictable in the way it plays out its wrenching emotional crises.
50	Village Voice Ella Taylor Alison Eastwood's debut feature is slow, deliberate, assured, and shot with a graceful feel for place--none of which is enough to overcome the creaky themes that tie this hackneyed domestic drama together with fearsome symmetry.
50	Entertainment Weekly Rails & Ties is like one bad TV movie that slammed into another.
50	Chicago Reader Alison Eastwood, whose good looks and last name have served her well as a Hollywood actress, makes her directing debut with this mediocre cancer drama.
50	USA Today While it features three strong performance and the debut of a promising filmmaker, the story line is obvious and rather melodramatic.
50	Los Angeles Times As lovely as some of the footage looks and as committed as are the three lead performances, they serve only to make Rails & Ties play like an exceptionally well-acted and well-made Lifetime movie.
50	The Hollywood Reporter A heartfelt but dramatically flat portrait of a couple grappling with one tragedy whose lives are profoundly affected by the outcome of another.
50	Chicago Tribune All the astute acting in the world can’t bring such a preposterous story into the station on time and intact.
42	The Onion (A.V. Club) Nobody feels anything they're not explicitly told to feel. Not even the audience.
25	TV Guide The film rings so consistently false that it's more likely to induce snickers and eye-rolling.
25	New York Post The only conceivable reason for Warner Bros. to (barely) release this mush is as a favor to Clint Eastwood, whose daughter Alison directed.
25	San Francisco Chronicle Chock-full of holes.

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