Passer By

James Nesbitt (of Cold Feet fame) stars in this excellent 2-part drama about Joe Keyes, a promement member of the NHS that happens to walk into the situation everyone dreads. He's on a train, on his way back from work. In his carriage are an attractive young woman and two partially-drunk youths. The conversation between the youths and the woman starts on a friendly note but gradually turns nasty until the youths make their sexual intentions clear. Keyes quietly observes the situation until the train arrives at his stop. As he gets off, the woman asks him to stay in case anything happens. He refuses. When he finds that the woman was later raped on that train, he begins eating himself up with guilt. This leads him to appeal as a witness.

The programme is directed at all of us that have ever stood by and done nothing when we see someone in trouble. Nesbitt is brilliant as usual in his quest for redemption and forgiveness. Its your loss if you missed it.

This is a film that I cant get out of my mind.

I was flicking through BBC Prime the other night and happened to come across the scene shot on a train with the two lads and girl. I still don't know how far into the movie I had come into, but I was already completely riveted to the screen.

I especially felt that the 'train scenes' showing the escalating 'banter' between the lads and the girl were incredibly realistic. I'm ashamed to say, I was almost surprised to find the writer and director were men! As a woman who has travelled alone and is very wary of 'reading the signs', I completely relate to these experiences, as most women can.

I've also been in both situations i.e. harassed on a train in London, (although fortunately things didn't end up as bad as in the film) and I've ALSO been in James Nesbitt's character's situation, and seen a woman on the commuter 'night train' violently assaulted in front of my eyes. Maybe this is why these scenes, in particular, made such an impact on me.

When I watched the lads' jokey nature change from flirty to threatening, I actually felt nauseous! I also nearly smashed the TV screen shouting at James Nesbitt's character to "DO SOMETHING!!"

For me, any movie that makes you think or feel strongly is good. I especially thought it interesting to show that we all have an image of ourselves which we like to present; however it's often how we would LIKE to be seen by others, rather than the reality of who we are.

Anyhow, I should probably admit now that I missed the last half an hour of this film as my BBC Prime feed cut out!! It happened just as the son runs out the house, Joe runs out after him and his wife starts an argument.

So could anyone fill me in!????

I'm hopefully waiting for a good Samaritan to help me out on this! :)

Almost everyone seems to believe that society is falling apart, and we all have our scapegoats to blame for this. But how many of us look at our own actions, or inaction, as a cause.

Joe Keyes is a an ordinary guy, your typical Mr. Average, who on seeing a nasty scene, with the potential for it to escalate very badly, walks away. On learning of the consequences he has to deal with his conscience & his relationship with his fellow human beings. His inaction is mirrored in his relationship with his family.

If you are of the belief that passing strangers are not human beings then this film is not for you. If you are a cold hearted bastard who couldn't care less about others then you will be bored by this film. For the rest of us this should be watched and thought about. For my part, I believe the 'broken windows' monologue is brilliant.

I'm not normally a great fan of James Nesbitt as his characters can be a bit OTT but this he gives gives a solid and believable performance. The script is very good and the support actors give a more than adequate performance.

Average mini-series based on the pretty obvious premise that if you fail to testify properly against a rapist in court, you'll feel guilty. Well acted and well meaning, but the script is bargain basement at times, and the attempt to parallel the father's story with his son being bullied at school is fairly lame. You get the feeling that the writer hit upon a really good idea for a programme (which it is), used up his best ideas in the first 20 or 30 minutes, then tried hard to stretch the protagonist's family problems to fit two episodes. Worth a watch if you like James Nesbitt, who (post-Cold Feet) seems to be carving a solid career out of performing well in mediocre scripts.

I think this movie is an excellent explorations about the consequences about this man pretending that the problems of others are not his, and being too cowardly to step forward.

It loses points because some aspects are over dramatized (for example the court room scene) and a few plot holes. However if you take it for what it is, a movie exploring this concept, then it is excellent. Sure, the story is far-fetched in how everything goes wrong. However the obvious parallels between the situation on the train, and his sons problem are a great way to explore the situation. His response in both situations is lacking, he puffs himself up and blusters up to resolve things, but at crunch time is found woefully lacking because he doesn't have the courage or energy to ensure that the situation is correctly resolved.

In the end, his search to ease his guilt brings him right around in a full circle, and the parallels between the cause of his problems, and the solution, is obvious.

I wish more could see this movie and this scenario exploring apathy to others problems.