When life comes apart, love puts it back together.
“Rails and Ties”.
I had been confused when I learned about the title, but after watching the movie, I had grasped a little understanding about the reason why it was made that way. Rails – this is not just simply because of Tom Stark’s occupation as a locomotive engineer in Stargazer Express train. I believe that the story started in the rails, when one day, a mother in bad shape with her 11-year-old son in the car, decided to end all her sufferings by parking the car on a rail crossing in the Simi Valley. Eventually, Tom only followed regulations and only moderately slowed down, resulting in a crash that killed the mother. The boy, fortunately, had escaped just in time. After the accident, Davey (the boy who had become an orphan) stormed to the Stark’s residence to ask for an explanation from him. This is where the “Ties” started. At the sight of the boy, Megan, Tom’s wife who suffered stage 4 cancer and was longing for a child ever since, felt sympathy for the boy and decided to keep the boy for some time. Through her persuasion, Tom agreed and this paved the way for some kind of connection between the three of them. It was like they were a complete family. Megan had a happy death while Tom, had the boy as a companion as he promised his wife that he would take care of Davey.
The characters of the movie have portrayed well some defence mechanisms. For Tom, he is a good example of one who is in denial, a defense mechanism defined as a refusal to accept external reality because it is too threatening. This is proven when Tom continually pushes or convinces Megan to continue therapy regarding her illness, not recognizing the fact that Megan’s days are already counted. Moreover, there was a scene when Tom’s colleague argued with him and said: "You know what your problem is? Everything is dying around you and you just can't deal with it, can you?". Tom also displaces his entire problem in his work. Laura, the boy’s mother, was mentally unstable and was overly depressed that she resorted to end her miserable life by taking lots of pills and then committing suicide. She had been suppressing her ordeal for a long time. Suppression is the conscious decision to delay paying attention to an emotion or need in order to cope with the present reality; able to later access the emotion and accept it. Davey, the little boy displayed denial and passive aggressive behaviour (aggression towards others expressed indirectly or passively) as he stormed into the starks home to blame Tom of killing his mom. There was also a scene wherein he blamed himself for the misfortunes of Megan. He kept saying “he was being punished by God” and that he should not involve other people in his doom. Megan, on one hand, had shown sublimation, transformation of negative emotions or instincts into positive actions, behavior, or emotion. She bought a piano, took care of Davey, and did her desires before she died. Megan showed a positive defense mechanism, as she had already reached the stage of acceptance regarding her illness.
However, the characters have also shown how they coped with their problems. Tom had compromised and used the emotion-based coping, when he accepted Megan is going to die soon. He continued to take care of the boy and fulfilled Megan’s last wish. Laura, had a dysfunctional coping mechanism. She turned to pills, and eventually suicide. Davey also compromised and eventually had accepted his mother’s death and accepted Tom’s explanation. There was a scene when told Tom, “I Forgive you.” Megan, had task-oriented reaction, she coped the stress of her illness by living life as she had wished: she learned playing the piano, fostered a child, and fixed her relationship with Tom. All her wishes had been reached, and she had a fulfilling death.
As I was watching the movie, I can’t help but feel how important the family is. As the “tie” was formed by the couple and Davey, I felt grateful that within the years, there is a good relationship that exists between the family I belong. I lived and grew up with my grandmother, but I still had relations with my mother and father who both have different families. This is a complicated life but I am still happy, like Davey, because I know I have persons who loves me and whom I love. Love really puts everything back together. J
*this is a movie reflection I once had submitted in Psych class when I was still a student
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