User Reviews

A heart-warming little romance, with spot-on casting and great acting to paper over the cracks in the story line. Hurt plays the 'man of mystery' to perfection: "up to something strange in the attic".

A well observed Dublin also plays a part, as the setting for all or most of the location shots.

One quibble: has anyone ever built an extensive model railway in a rented room? That kind of hobby goes with a fixed abode! But no more implausible than John Hurt playing a romantic lead....

But quibbles aside, Hurt & Blethyn are superb, as usual, and deliver a delightful and diverting entertainment. Simply enjoy!

This was a mystery of sorts, but more of a romance. The story-line was a little ponderous to start with and "Night Train's" plot is rather common: a man with a troubled past, just released from jail, attempts to hide from a former employer-crook from whom he stole money; he hides in a rooming house run by an elderly widow with an unhappy spinster daughter under her mother's domination; the boarder and daughter become friends; as the crooks close in on the boarder, he convinces the daughter to escape and start a new life, which she does; he then admits that he's on the run because of stolen money, which she demands he return or forget the relationship. Hurt and Blethin were both well cast as the leads and they really did make the whole film work as it picked up momentum. The scenes aboard the Orient Express in Europe were simply beautiful and breathtaking and it was a shame that there wasn't a scene or two on the British Pullman but with the initial story being set in Ireland I guess it made sense to go by boat to Europe and pick up the Orient Express there. Based on the cover photo I was expecting a fast paced thriller but this was just right. Quirky little movie, but worth the time.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Very low-key tale with a wonderful performance by John Hurt in particular. Also a movie worth watching for model train-buffs as Hurt's character has one of the most beautiful train sets ever seen on film!

Shot on location in Leeds NIGHT TRAIN also confirmed something I've suspected for quite some time: all British cities really DO look the same!

It's an intriguing story with intriguing characters and fabulous actors and we'd love to see it updated.

We'd leave out the horridness of the torture and the slaughterhouse. All of the tension that those scenes invoke can be created in ways that don't leave most of us covering our eyes and thinking we'll never eat a burger again or see a screwdriver in quite the same way. And we'd leave out the gutter language. We miss the classier vocab that could be used instead and that we just don't hear anymore.

The marketing for this show made it look like an adventure movie. It's not. It's a love story. We'd put more action in the remake without losing the drama of the relationships. And it would be beautiful to see the story with updated scenery.

Basically, loved the story, didn't care for the way it was shown.

At the end of the nineteenth century, whenever a filmmaker wanted to convey a sense of urgency and romance, he took his camera, placed it on a railway platform and waited for the sound of a steam whistle. The 1898 movie shorts, ‘Arrival Of Tokyo Train' and ‘Train Hour in Durango, Mexico' do not have modern equivalents. The fact is we prefer not to have drama in our airports. We don't want smoke billowing from our 747's, and we would feel decidedly uncomfortable if every flight were presaged by a man in a navy uniform looking to his pocket watch before announcing, "all aboard now, ladies and gentlemen".

John Lynch, in his engaging feature ‘Night Train', finds passion in his performers rather than in the iron behemoth of the title. The urgency and romance are delivered by John Hurt and Brenda Blethyn, both powerful actors who understand that the full force of love can be projected more with the unsaid and ineffable than with the spoken word.

The romance begins when Michael Poole (Hurt) introduces Alice Mooney (Blethyn) to his secret obsession, the elaborate train set which he has been constructing in his room. Poole, recently released from jail for embezzlement, is now being pursued by the gangster (Lorcan Cranitch) he swindled. So, this sheltered world of miniature tracks and sidings must soon be exchanged for the real thing as our protagonists set off on the Orient Express for Venice.

‘Night Train' is always much more than a chase movie because it explores an area not often charted in recent films. Love is not the sole property of supple young boys and girls whose close-ups invariably involve open pores and beads of perspiration. Sometimes love is simply about forgotten desires and about hope and, to quote the writer John Rechy, sometimes hope is an end in itself.

Night train is a film that reminds us of our frailties.

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!

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.

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.

Brenda Blethyn (52) and John Hurt (58) are the lovers in this late life romance. It is very much like a stage play and the story line is so fragile that you are required to champion the actors and disregard brief not too well done action sequences that move the story along.

It is low budget but the filming is very competent. I found it a little hard to believe that a middle class (at best) middle aged introverted woman (Blethyn) could suddenly appear decked out like Lauren Bacall in the train sequences--where did she get the expensive clothes etc...ditto for John Hurt who had been working in a slaughter house disposing of offal--although his career had actually been as a rip off shady bookkeeper-- still not the evening clothes type.

The model train stuff was hard to swallow but central to the story--what can I say all in all it works as enjoyable entertainment what more do you want? The narrow focus of the action (to the romance and elopement) helps make it low key and relaxing even though there are scenes of people being burned alive etc... ODD movie in this regard.

Tacked on items like the women's lingerie thief reveal the fundamental naive amateur nature of the writing/production. But that's what gives this B production it's appeal.

RECOMMEND

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.

It's a nice story. Both Alice and Michael I.e. Brenda Blethyn and John Hurt are so appealing. I found that scene when they play train-train and she sings the poem of W.H.Auden, most interesting and so very natural. In fact it has been my hobby to collect miniatures of trains, create scenes in my display case with The leaning tower of Pisa, Eiffel Tower, the statue of Liberty and so on. In my childhood (I'm now 68) I used to spend most of weekends at the railway Yard, the station .. observing passing passenger and goods trains, engine shunting, coal and water feeding and.. Above all the movie is very good. The end is pleasing. Thanks to the director Mr John Hurt. Ms Brenda "you are just superb".