TRAIN DREAMS
(director/writer: Clint Bentley; screenwriters: Greg Kwedar/from the novella Train Dreams by Denis Johnson; cinematographer: Adolpho Veloso; editor: Parker Laramie; music: Bryce Dessner; cast: Felicity Jones (Gladys Grainier), Joel Edgerton (Robert Grainier), Will Patton (Narrator), Kerry Condon (Claire), William H. Macy (Arn Peeples, Logger), Chuck Tanner (The Silent Man), Paul Schneider (Frank), Nathaniel Arcand (Ignatius Jack, shopkeeper), John Diehl (Billy), Alfred Hsing (Fu Sheng), Zoe Rose Short (Kate); Runtime: 102; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Michael Heimier/Will Janowitz/Marissa McMahon/Ashley Schlaifer/Teddy Schwarzman; Black Bear/Netflix; 2025)
“Touching period piece drama.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Clint Bentley (“Jockey”) impressively directs this touching period piece drama of a bygone era, telling the engrossing fictional story of an every-man itinerant worker born in the early 1900s Pacific Northwest. Bentley co-writes it with Greg Kwedar, with whom he previously co-scripted the critically acclaimed, Oscar nominated, Sing Sing (2024).
“Train Dreams” is based on the 2011 novella of the same name by the late Denis Johnson. It features the lush location photography from the gifted DP Adolpho Veloso, the nostalgic Bryce Dessner moody score, the brilliant soft-spoken moving performance by Joel Edgerton, and the tasteful unseen sometimes humorous narration by Will Patton. Its time period spans from WW1 to the late 1960s (the landing on Mars as seen on TV), the protagonist’s lifetime.
Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), the protagonist, is a taciturn loner living in the rural areas of northern Idaho and Washington, in the early 20th-century. He survives living in such a cutthroat country by eking out a meager living as a worker.
The orphan child begins life by taking a train ride by himself , where he winds up raised in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. He becomes a railroad worker as a young man and works alongside abused Chinese laborers in racist America. In one shocking incident, a hateful mob randomly throw a Chinese worker off a bridge who never makes a sound during the attack. That dastardly incident haunts him for the rest of his life.
Somehow the withdrawn morose Robert gets lucky and in 1917 meets Gladys (Felicity Jones), a singer in the church choir, someone he falls madly in love with. They live in a modest homemade cabin in the woods, have a good marriage, and raise a cute daughter Kate (Zoe Rose Short).
Robert becomes a logger to make more money for his family, but at the cost of spending a lot of time away from home at logging camps. At a logger’s camp he meets the loquacious, philosophic dynamite expert, Arn Peeples (William H. Macy), who is unhappy destroying nature so rich businessmen can make a profit. Arn believes you create bad karma by cutting down these wonderful trees, as he points out progress sometimes comes with a heavy price.
Robert’s life is shaken by a tragedy that takes away his reason for living and any hope for his happiness in this life.
This is an epic film on the common man who built this country, telling us his lyrical story as if his story is America’s in the last century.
It offers a powerful classical history lesson about an ordinary, soulful guy, with only a few friends, who helped build this country and lived through its good and bad times, trying in his own quiet way to live harmoniously with nature and make his own mark in the world.
It played at the Sundance Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 2/13/2025 GRADE: A
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