Train Dreams: A Quietly Great Film
Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic
It still feels like most of the movies released by Netflix are geared toward maximizing eyeballs through their algorithms. However, we still get a handful of real gems and award contenders every year, too, with House of Dynamite, Frankenstein, and Wake Up Dead Man being among the more recent examples. Another one to add to the list is Train Dreams, a contemplative drama about an isolated man and the changing face of America in the early 20th century.
Through voiceover narration from the wonderful character actor Will Patton, we are introduced to Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), an orphan who, despite not knowing his date of birth, becomes a logger in the early 1900s. He has a wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones), a daughter, and a home they have built for themselves near a river in Montana. Robert will live his entire life in his narrow slice of the world, never straying far from his roots in the northwestern United States. It is a simple and, on its face, unremarkable life.
While working as a logger and spending months away from his family, Robert encounters many men and witnesses a variety of unique experiences. At one point, a man is shot in front of them while they’re eating because the man killed the shooter’s brother. A log breaks away and rolls uncontrollably down a hill, killing men and horses; no matter how many precautions they take, their work is still a dangerous business, and the world’s demand for lumber waits for no tragedy.
The most traumatic work experience Robert witnesses, though, is from his one time working for the train company to build a bridge instead of logging. The workers there have much less camaraderie than the loggers, and they are also very segregated. A moment that marks him and haunts him is seeing a Chinese man he is cutting wood with get thrown to his death by a few of their co-workers, while all Robert can do is ask, “What did he do?”
This accumulation of brushes with death leads to the germination of a fear that quietly eats away at him, that some unescapable fate or pain awaits him that he has thus narrowly avoided. His dreams are frequently haunted by the Chinese man and a train barreling toward him.
Without delving into spoiler territory, his life is marked by a tragic event, one that splits the second half of the film from the first, but another marker of that split is the world slowly passing him by in the second half of the film, most notably the last season he goes logging and realizing he can’t keep up with it, and the transition in his life that causes. Finding a new way to make a living in the second half of his life opens it up to its own new wonders.
Robert’s life is simple and unadorned, but that simplicity allows the beauty of the world to seep in. Edgerton’s Robert is like an avatar for the viewer, taking in the world and the people around him, listening to the tales of his fellow loggers, and absorbing the wisdom passed along. One worker in particular, Arn Peeples, leaves an impression, portrayed magnificently by William H. Macy.
What impressed and surprised me most about this film was its ability to reveal the beauty and awe of the world. A lot of movies try to be grandiose and show that “EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED,” but few movies this plainspoken actually make you feel connected not just to the world around you, but the world that was before you and the world that is to come. Macy’s Arm is a vessel for this, talking about the 500-year-old trees they’re cutting down, the old world they are taking down with it, and the new world with which they are slowly replacing it.
Edgerton gives a performance here that is worthy of an Oscar nomination. He is primarily an observer in the film, but has several moments of emotional turmoil that bubble up to the surface. You get the impression that Robert has an interior life. He shows kindness to his co-workers and the people he comes into contact with, even if he is a man with few friends.
The cinematography is sublime. The logging and other moments in the woods are lush and beautiful. The aspect ratio of the film is 3:2, which is boxy, which invokes old photographs similar to the era the film depicts. I’ve also read that some directors want an aspect ratio like that to give their movie a sense of verticality, which works well in the forest and tall trees. There is also a definite influence of Terrance Malick in this film.
Unbeknownst to me, the film is directed by Clint Bentley and co-written by Bentley and Greg Kwedar. This was the directing/writing combo behind 2024’s Sing Sing, only with Kwedar in the director’s seat for that one. It is another emotionally rich and moving film.
Train Dreams depicts the simple beauty of a simple life. Robert Grainier’s is a life marked by sorrow, for sure, but also by appreciation, and it's a quiet but moving performance by Joel Edgerton, one of the finest and most consistent actors working today. By the time the credits rolled, I found myself unexpectedly moved to tears by this film that connects one man to the world around him, the world that came before him, and the world he had a small hand in creating. Train Dreams is one of the best films of the year.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars