It is an adaptation of the 1995 autobiography of the same name by Eric Lomax, and stars Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, and Stellan Skarsgård.

During his time in the camp as one of the Far East prisoners of war, Lomax is tortured by the Kempeitai (military secret police) for building a radio receiver from spare parts.

Thirty years later, Lomax is still suffering the psychological trauma of his wartime experiences, though strongly supported by his wife, Patricia, whom he had met on one of his many train excursions, a true railway enthusiast.

The situation builds up to the point where Lomax prepares to smash Nagase's arm, using a club and a clamp designed by the Japanese for that purpose and now used as war exhibits.

The consensus reads: "Understated to a fault, The Railway Man transcends its occasionally stodgy pacing with a touching, fact-based story and the quiet chemistry of its stars.

"[16] Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail stated, "Firth gives the performance his all as a man trapped in a vortex of grief, shame and hate, but as in Scott Hicks's Shine, which the film occasionally resembles, there's an overtidy relationship between trauma and catharsis".

Reviewing the film for History Extra, the website of BBC History Magazine, he said that, while he had no problem with the representation of the suffering of POWs or the way in which the Japanese are portrayed, "the impression [the film] gives of the post-war behaviour of former POWs of the Japanese is too generalised..." Towle also points out that the meeting between Lomax and his tormentor was not unexpected, but rather there had been correspondence leading up to it.

He writes that the film may not have made it clear: the railway was basically finished, and by the time of their rescue "...the main dangers to the POWs came from starvation and disease, allied bombing and the looming threat that all would be murdered by the Japanese at the end of the war.