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09/29/07
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Rails & Ties (2007)
34
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Reviews Counted:44
Fresh:15
Rotten:29
Average Rating:4.5/10
Consensus: Despite the strong cast, Rails & Ties is an emotionally overwrought, not entirely believable melodrama.
Theatrical Release:Oct 26, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Suffering from addiction and depression, Laura Danner (Bonnie Root) drives her car--with her son, Davey (Miles Heizer), inside--onto the railroad tracks, waiting for the train to come and kill... [More]
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Reviews for Rails & Ties
Mr. Bacon, Ms. Gay Harden and Mr. Heizer are talented enough almost to bring off this fragile conceit -- almost, but not quite.
10/24/07
Top CriticEveryone involved will move on to bigger and better things and leave this series of unfortunate events behind on the tracks, waiting for a midnight train to put it out of its considerable misery.
11/09/07
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.
10/25/07
Top CriticIt'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.
01/02/08
Top CriticWhile it features three strong performance and the debut of a promising filmmaker, the story line is obvious and rather melodramatic.
10/26/07
Alison Eastwood has a good eye for composition but misses out completely on bringing some much-needed rhythmic variety and humor to the maudlin source material.
10/25/07
Some films use talent and eloquence to grab an audience. Others, however, rely simply on brute force; if nothing else, this megaweepie isn’t afraid to throw elbows at any unlucky sod with $11 and a masochistic streak.
10/25/07
No doubt about it, Alison Eastwood has picked up a thing or two from her old man. Her debut feature is slow, deliberate, assured, and shot with a graceful feel for place -- none of which is enough to overcome the creaky themes.
10/25/07
To describe the plot is to parody the film. Though impeccably acted and directed with a solemn, professional gloss, it sinks under the weight of its absurdity.
09/02/07
No one needed to pull the emergency brake to derail this movie, but they should have anyway.
10/25/07
The metaphors flow almost as freely as the tears in this sentimental weepie.
11/27/07
No amount of clunky train metaphors can cover up the movie's routine dramatic trajectory.
10/25/07
The opening act is strong, but the story's trajectory is so obvious this often seems to be traveling along tracks as well -- into a valley of soap suds.
10/24/07
Scripts [don't] come any sudsier than Micky Levy's awesomely bathetic Rails & Ties.
10/25/07
Top CriticThe younger Eastwood tells her story with sledgehammer blows.
11/08/07
An hour and a half of emotional overload that you can either buy into and feel depressed, or reject and feel cheated.
10/26/07
There's a chance that a good film might have been salvaged from these questionable ingredients, but Eastwood opts for the tried-and-true approach of tearjerkers past.
10/25/07
The only conceivable reason for Warner Bros. to (barely) release this mush is as a favor to Clint Eastwood, whose daughter Alison directed.
10/26/07
Top CriticAlison Eastwood makes her directing debut with this ludicrous melodrama, in which a troubled couple and a newly orphaned boy heal each others' emotional wounds against a backdrop of blunt metaphors.
10/26/07
Latest News for Rails & Ties
June 21, 2008:
Kevin Bacon turns in a solid, attention grabbing performance as a rigid, scornful man in a deep funk just trying to cling to a familiar world disintegrating all around him. 
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October 26, 2007:
Kevin Bacon turns in a solid, attention grabbing performance as a rigid, scornful man in a deep funk just trying to cling to a familiar world disintegrating all around him.
More...
October 25, 2007:
Critical Consensus: Life Has Its Ups And Downs, Darjeeling Is Transporting
This week at the movies we have a lovelorn single dad (Dan in Real Life, starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche), brothers on a train (The Darjeeling Limited, starring Owen... More...
October 25, 2007:
The way Kevin Bacon's brittle heart softens as he finally gets it, about his wife's fearlessness in facing down death, adds to what is shaping up as a big year, following Benicio Del Toro, for Oscar worthy, sensitive surrogate family man role models.
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