Alison Eastwood’s directorial debut, “Rails & Ties,” immediately invites the comparison to her father’s “Million Dollar Baby” in that the specter of death serves as a catalyst for drama. In Ms. Eastwood’s film, Megan Stark (Marcia Gay Harden) is stricken with breast cancer. The only way her husband, Tom (Kevin Bacon), knows to cope is by immersing himself in his job as a railroad engineer rolling between Los Angeles and Seattle. When a deadly collision temporarily puts Tom out of work, tension soon mounts between the couple now that he must stay at home.

Davey (13-year-old Miles Heizer, channeling Haley Joel Osment circa 1999), who was orphaned as a result of the train accident, unexpectedly comes knocking one day and Megan insists that the couple take him in, despite the fact that a social worker is plastering “missing” posters everywhere with the kid’s mug on them. With the aid of a piano, a kite, and a model train set in the garage, the three slowly discover la joie de vivre en famille until Megan’s condition worsens.