Railway Children Parent Guide

It’s 1944 and German bombs are falling on British cities. The Watts siblings, Lily, Pattie, and Ted (played by Beau Gadsdon, Eden Hamilton, and Zac Cudby) are evacuated to the safety of the Yorkshire countryside where they wind up with the family of Bobbie Waterbury, her schoolmistress daughter, and her grandson, Thomas (played by Jenny Agutter, Sheridan Smith, and Austin Haynes). The Watts siblings are homesick, but Thomas and his family are welcoming, and the visitors soon settle into their peaceful rural surroundings.

There is little peace on the nearby American military base. Tensions between black and white soldiers have flared up, and military police are beating black soldiers who socialize with white women in the adjacent town. Injured and unwilling to risk further attacks, young Private Abraham McCarthy (Kenneth Aikens) goes on the run and stumbles across a hideout used by Thomas and his new friends. Sure enough, Abe is found by Pattie, and the children are drawn into America’s racial quagmire.

This film is a generational sequel to Edith Nesbit’s classic novel, Railway Children, with one of its protagonists now a grandmother instead of a child. I have never read Ms. Nesbit’s novel and although I know the script contains allusions to the book, that didn’t stop me from following the movie’s plot. To be honest, it’s a very simple story, focused almost exclusively on racism and the responsibility of bystanders to stand up to racially motivated violence and injustice. It’s not subtle, it gets a bit preachy, but the story has good intentions, and I can forgive a bit of stuffiness for a movie whose heart is in the right place.

Most of the movie revolves around the ethical dilemmas faced by Lily and Thomas as they help Abe and this is where parents will find themselves conflicted. In her attempts to help Abe, Lily lies, sneaks out at night, indulges in other reckless behavior, nearly gets killed and gets arrested. Thomas is much more ambivalent about their clandestine activities and argues with Lily about their dishonesty. He wisely wants to get adults involved but finally gives in and helps Lily with her plans. Aside from the kids’ unwise choices, the movie contains little else for parents to worry about. There’s very minor profanity, mention of losses in wartime, and some brief scenes of racial violence. This isn’t a movie that will frighten most kids, but it might not be one that will interest them either.

Railway Children is an easy choice for fans of the book and for young viewers who enjoy historical drama. It also clearly drives home its racial justice message and does so with appealing characters in a beautifully rendered historical context. Whether or not this package delivers enjoyable family entertainment is less dependent on the film itself and more on the personalities of the viewers.