Rails & Ties

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Rails & Ties

PG-13,

2007,

1h 41m,

Drama

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Watchlist

34%

47 Reviews

Tomatometer

58%

10,000+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

34%

Tomatometer

47 Reviews

58%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Engineer Tom Stark (Kevin Bacon) kills a suicidal woman when his train slams into her car. Suspended from his job, he must confront his wife Megan's (Marcia Gay Harden) illness finally, but Megan announces she is going to leave him. Unexpectedly, the son (Miles Heizer) of the dead woman, arrives on the couple's doorstep and moves in with them.

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Critics Consensus

Despite the strong cast, Rails & Ties is an emotionally overwrought, not entirely believable melodrama.

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Christy Lemire

Associated Press

Jan 2, 2008

It's hard to get over the implausibility of the premise in Micky Levy's script, even though the characters themselves acknowledge that they're in a ridiculous situation.

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Richard Roeper

Ebert & Roeper

Nov 12, 2007

There's just not much here to recommend at all.

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Ruthe Stein

San Francisco Chronicle

Nov 9, 2007

1/4

One highly unlikely circumstance after another become laughable, preventing you from being moved by the family tragedies depicted. They beg for tears, but a script this chock-full of holes is unlikely to elicit the desired effect.

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Martin Tsai

New York Sun

Apr 21, 2023

Unfortunately, here you get a Lifetime original movie with a bigger budget.

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Kelly Vance

East Bay Express

Apr 28, 2011

In common with her famous actor/filmmaker father, Ms. Eastwood seems to have an instinctual grasp of the petty grievances and triumphs of working-class American life.

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Ryan Cracknell

Movie Views

Jun 28, 2008

Feels so forced and determined to convey a certain emotion that its authenticity is lost. And when there's no sense of authenticity, there's no emotional attachment.

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Theodore P

Jul 27, 2017

Why do the critics always love the films that are violent, depressing as hell, and involve characters such as drug dealers and gangsters. But when a film involves situations that touch your heart and show human beings coping with situations that are horrible with dignity and compassion, they label it as too emotional and sentimental! Well, real people liked this movie and I did, too. Melodrama is the way real people die of cancer--I know, because I watched my father sister die of it and it was horrible. The death here is what we would like death to be, but seldom is. However, do we go to the movies to see real life? Maybe critics do, but real people don't. The movies are makebelieve, that is why they are movies. The more they are like real life, the less we like them, because we go to the movies to escape from real life. So when a movie plot has two deaths in it and the grieving survivors find each other and comfort each other, that's what we want in the face of tragedy--for something good to come out of it, for the dying person to find some happiness before death and die peacefully. Sure, that's not the way it happens, but it is the way we wish it did. And this subtlety, superbly acted film does that.

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Alison Eastwood

Director

Kevin Bacon

Tom Stark

Marcia Gay Harden

Megan Stark

Miles Heizer

Davey Danner

Marin Hinkle

Renee

Eugene Byrd

Otis Higgs

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Synopsis

Engineer Tom Stark (Kevin Bacon) kills a suicidal woman when his train slams into her car. Suspended from his job, he must confront his wife Megan's (Marcia Gay Harden) illness finally, but Megan announces she is going to leave him. Unexpectedly, the son (Miles Heizer) of the dead woman, arrives on the couple's doorstep and moves in with them.

Director: Alison Eastwood
Producer: Robert Lorenz, Peer J. Oppenheimer, Barrett Stuart
Screenwriter: Micky Levy
Distributor: Warner Independent
Production Co: Malpaso Company
Rating: PG-13 (Brief Nudity|An Accident Scene|Mature Thematic Elements|Momentary Strong Language)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 26, 2007, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 31, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA): $21.4K
Runtime: 1h 41m

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