Last Train to Fortune hits jackpot

          Director Adam Rifkin clearly bears a soft spot for westerns, books, and education, his appreciation shining through with Last Train to Fortune. Working from a script by Michele Rifkin, he opens with a visual riff on Once Upon a Time in the West as a lone man waits at a remote train stop standing isolated amidst barren desert. A robbery soon leaves an English schoolteacher named Cecil stuck in the middle of nowhere. Switching the tone away from spaghetti Western stylistics, Rifkin moves into a sweet but fanciful plot about Cecil’s journey to Fortune, a town whose name reflects hope rather than reality.  Malcom McDowell dives into the role of Cecil, perfectly capturing the teacher’s fish-out-of-water qualities in a setting whose harsh environment turns books and other comforts of city life into impractical burdens. Classic western backdrops from California’s Lone Pine region emphasize travel challenges and the difficulty of carrying around heavy books in unforgiving terrain, but the region’s beauty provides a believable magnetic pull that keeps Cecil moving forward. McDowell’s pull also helps: Bernadette Peters, his co-star from Mozart in the City, joins the mix. McDowell also lures his real-life Time After Time co-star and ex-wife, Mary Steenbergen into the project. Those names—and acting skills—stand out in a film whose modest budget appears to limit large action set pieces. A couple of jarring switches from color to black and white also reflect monetary constraints but Last Train to Fortune ultimately comes up with something more important than slick technology—it has heart.