Film: The Railway Man

It was raining quite badly in the middle of the day today, so I researched bus routes to and from the cinema. Fortunately though, it was fine in the evening, and I ended up walking both ways.

It was my first time buying a ticket from the machine at the Odeon, and my problem was that I wanted to add points to my card as well. It was a bit of a palaver, but I figured out how eventually. And I was peckish, having come straight from work, so bought a packet of Rolos on my way in. And made sure I got points on those, too! There was someone wandering around to take tickets, so I got my ticket checked fairly immediately for once, and I was in Screen 5, which is one of the closest to the lobby, so for once, no traipsing all over the cinema. When I got in, I was surprised at the size of the screen, which was tiny! for the size of the room, anyway. So I sat third row from the front - further forward than anyone else there.

The Railway Man is an excellent film, I'm happy to say. It stars Colin Firth as a war veteran, with baggage from his time in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. He marries Nicole Kidman, who's shocked to see how badly he's been damaged, and who seeks the help of another veteran, Stellan Skarsgard, who has founded the local veteran's club, and is able to tell her much of what happened to her husband during the war. Jeremy Irvine, whom you might remember from War Horse, does a decent job of playing Colin Firth's younger self. But it's really Colin himself who steals the film - he's electrifying every time he's on screen, playing an unpredictable character.

Towards the end of the film, the story started to sound familiar to me, and I realised that I read about the real story in the papers some years back. Apparently, this guy wrote a book about it, and this is the film of the book. He died in 2012.. I won't give away any more of the details, but it's a great story.

Tomorrow evening, I've booked to see Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana. Showing at the BFI again, it's apparently a Finnish road movie. Well, fine by me! And then it's back to Ireland for the weekend..