Kevin Bacon stars as a railroad engineer who forms a bond with a young boy (Miles Heizer) after his mother kills herself on his train track. ''It's a very intimate story,'' says first-time director Alison Eastwood, who was originally just a producer. ''After years of working with [scriptwriter Micky Levy], I had a vision for it. I thought, If someone will let me direct this, I want to try.'' Filmmaking genes might run in her family — she's the daughter of multiple-Oscar winner Clint. ''He's not a man of many words,'' she says. ''His advice was 'Get a lot of sleep.''' Of course he'd make it look that easy.