Night Train

Delighted to find this has been picked up by Lifetime Movies and will get the exposure it deserves. Sensitive performances and well-photographed travellogue plus an odd subplot make this a winner. Blethyn in particular is her usual talented self and somehow we even begin to see John Hurt as handsome thru her eyes--no small feat!

John Hurt, Brenda Blethyn, and Pauline Flanagan star in "Night Train," a 1998 film directed by John Lynch.

An ex-con, Michael Poole, rents a room in the home of Alice Mooney (Blethyn) and her mother (Flanagan). Of course they know nothing about him. They hear him moving furniture, banging, and hammering.

Michael knows people are after him, and he knows why. These people will stop at nothing, including torturing a man for information. Gross scene, very disturbing.

Michael gets a job in an abattoir and, for the squeamish, just close your eyes. It's the grossest thing I have ever seen in a movie. I almost threw up. OMG it was awful.

One day the nosy mother goes into the room while he's gone and nearly kills herself tripping over his gigantic train set -- complete with mountains, train stations, and rails and trains all over the place. His favorite is the Orient Express, and he has the full route on his set.

Michael shows it to Alice, and gradually, the two fall in love. She has never had much of a life, thanks to her mother, and he wants to stop playing with trains and get on one. He invites her to go with him on the Orient Express. By now, he knows he has to get out of town. She accepts, not realizing that the people after him now know where he worked and where he lives.

Despite getting sick to my stomach (I don't eat meat, thank God) this is a beautifully acted film about two people at the end of the line. Blethyn, looking so pretty here,has a need for love, and evokes real sympathy, as she has to live with her insulting, nasty mother and doesn't think she can leave her. Hurt is wonderful as an aging, lost man who is sick of running and wants to grab at life.

Flanagan plays an unlikeable woman, but her meanness comes from her own sadness, and a real desire to keep her daughter from suffering as she did. It's also a meanness borne out of selfishness; she's afraid to lose her daughter's care.

The neighbors -- well, they're interesting, and I'll leave it at that. Let's just say clothes disappear off clotheslines.

I absolutely loved this film for the beautiful portrayals and the story. That's saying a lot, because I nearly turned it off. I'm glad I didn't.

Night Train is a brilliant and sensitive film. It is directed in a wonderfully subtle way by John Lynch and acted by a distinguished ensemble cast which includes the great Pauline Flanagan as Mrs. Mooney. John Hurt and Brenda Blethyn could not be better cast in their roles of Poole the conman and Alice the shy bookworm. Their blossoming romance is a delight to experience and puts one in mind of another great film, Brief Encounter. The chemistry between Hurt and Blethyn is unsurpassed, in my opinion, particularly in the scene where she agrees to run away with him. Brenda has never been better, before or since, as she avoids the usual histrionics in a performance devoid of artifice and understated to sheer perfection. Director take a bow.

Delighted to see that Night Train is now available on DVD in the USA and Canada on the Madacy label and that it has also been re-released in the UK. Has anyone seen it on TV in the UK? The music by Adam Lynch is superb. Great performances, great direction, great soundtrack, great movie. 10 out of 10.

I went to see this 1999 Palm Springs International Film Festival offering the night of it's U.S. Premiere, January 16th. at the Annenberg Theatre in Palm Springs. I must confess, I went mainly to see Brenda Blethyn. I was not disappointed, as this proved to be yet another in a series of wonderful performances by this brilliant actress.

Like a school child, I found myself turning often during the screening to look in the direction of where Ms. Blethyn was sitting (three seats over), just to see if she was as enthralled with her own on-screen presence as I was. Sadly, I witnessed no such self-indulgent behavior on her part, and I never really expected to. What I did see was a handsome woman, almost timid in appearance, sitting and enjoying a movie with the rest of us; all so contrary, at least in my mind, to her on-screen persona.

A chain of events draws Blethyn and Hurt together into a love affair which is deepened by each in a mutual need to escape the past. The fragile story line takes it's toll here, resulting in a rather lacklustre presentation. This is not to say that the film isn't in itself an enjoyable little journey. It does have its moments where genuine acting abilty and some beautiful scenery carry what otherwise might be a heavy load.

Mr. Hurt's usual vitality appears to be on the decline. It is also difficult to view him as a mere love interest after the strength of character in so many of his other varied roles of the past...

This film should have had wider distribution - I was lucky enough to see it at a festival two years after it was made, and I'd never heard of it before.

It's gentle, funny, tense - in fact there are some quite scary moments in it - well-acted, with shrewd observation of ordinary lives and relationships, and a believable plot.

I can't think of anyone I wouldn't recommend this to.