The world of Railway Children began in Edith Nesbitt’s 1905 novel series about a mother and her three children who leave London at the turn of the 20th century to live in the countryside, right by the railroad. 1970 was followed by a popular film starring British actress Jenny Agter, and the latest, The Railway Children, is set during World War II. Her three youths in Morgan Mathews’ charming new film are sent to the northern countryside as part of a children’s evacuation during a German air raid.
Thirteen-year-old Lily (Beau Gudsdon) and her brothers Patty and Ted (Eden Hamilton and Zach Cadby) are taken in by a kind female teacher, Annie (Sheridan Smith), and her mother, Bobby (Agter). The city kids have a period of adaptation, but they soon settle into idyllic Yorkshire in all its cinematic brilliance.
Dotted with lessons, this is a journey of nostalgia first treated with the cherubic face of a children’s show. to hold.
Drama arrives with American Soldiers adding a nasty kind of fresh drama. Lily and her brother covertly give shelter to Abe (KJ Aikens, a little wobble), a very young black enlisted man who is being hunted by the military police. Perhaps surprisingly, “Railway Children” addresses the fact that Jim Crow’s quarantine was enforced within the US military.
Decency prevails in a somewhat silly finale involving an army of children and a train containing high-ranking officials.
railway children
Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. at the theater.