IRISH FILM CRITIC: MOVIE REVIEW: THE ORIGINAL RAILWAY CHILDREN ARE GROWN, BUT WORLD WAR II BRINGS A NEW GENERATION ON THE SCENE FOR MORE ADVENTURES
September 26, 2022
"Follow a group of children evacuated to a Yorkshire village during the Second World War, where they encounter a young soldier who, like them, is far away from home.
I was unaware of both this book and the 1970 film based on it–the original story of “The Railway Children” by Edith Nesbit. The current 2022 film was initially titled “The Railway Children Return,” but the words “the” and “return” were eventually dropped. It’s all a bit confusing, as one of the original children, “Bobbie” (Jenny Agutter), is now grown, and she and her daughter and grandson appear as characters in the current version. Nevertheless, this contemporary version is captivating, refreshingly fun, and thick with the imagination children bring to their everyday play.
I must mention right off there is much in the thread of the new plot that I found reminiscent of the much-loved sci-fi adventure film, “E.T The Extra-Terrestrial,” produced in 1982 and directed by Stephen Spielberg. In “Railway Children,” you have a group of children shipped from London to the Yorkshire countryside by their mother to escape the brutal bombing by the Germans and the dire situation of their father, who has been accused of being a spy. In “E.T.,” the children are also grieving their father’s loss and acting out their grief to the dismay of their mother, who is struggling. These new “railway” children land in a small Yorkshire village where no family can take them in because the three refuse to be separated. Enter Bobbie, previously one of the three original “Railway” kids, and she convinces her daughter to bring them into their home where she, her daughter, and her grandson, Thomas (Austin Haynes), live. "
