REVIEW: “Train Dreams” (2025)

(Source: Avoca Beach Theatre) 

Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2025, director Clint Bentley and and co-writer Greg Kwedar (the same team behind Sing Sing) adapted for the screen Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella about a logger in early-20th Century America. Evident from trailers and then some, it’s a very evocative story about a man who isn’t much compared to some, and yet plays a role in the span of time he lives through. 

Train Dreams is the kind of film that Terrence Malick or Kelly Reichardt could have made. It’s very poetic, quiet, melodic, meditative, impressionistic, beautiful to look at, and sweeping. Its bold and immersive scope and imagery is framed at a 1.33:1 Academy aspect ratio, with details in nature and lighting, including striking moments shot at the magic hour. Plus, an exceptional cast includes Joel Edgerton (as Robert Grainier), Felicity Jones (as his wife Gladys), William H. Macy (as one of the men that Grainier works with), and Kerry Condon (as a U.S. Forest Service representative). 

Aided by Bryce Dessner’s bittersweet score and Will Patton’s rich narration, the story’s episodic narrative is composed of a series of moments/chapters, as an echo of how life (and time) seems to be moving fast. The same goes for when moments of violence can unexpectedly come out of nowhere. Regarding the men that Grainier encounters throughout his work: “Although little was known of them in this world,” we’re told, “they left a lasting impression on him.” Yet, there’s a mystery behind who Robert himself is, in terms of his upbringing, his education, and how he developed his work ethic. The film focuses more on his memories of places and people, including his own home life with his wife and daughter, his time with them, and his time away from them. 

Train Dreams also works as a parallel to the building of America in the first half of the century, with old things passing and new things being made, for better or worse. Characters discuss (even debate) about history (including stories, myths, and religions), what it used to be, and what it represents. The imagery throughout also not only reflects what is changing and what is destroyed, but also what is filled with life and what is empty. Shots of a titular train rolling along at night play like scene transitions, while the aforementioned forest metaphors and characters echo cycles of life and interconnectivity. 

Themes of grief, melancholy, successes, and failures are evident or implied, with spiritual/religious references to apparent premonitions (such as haunting imagery of a burning cabin) or ghosts of the past. “Do you think bad things we do follow us through life,” asks Grainier. He wonders the same during moments when there’s suddenly no work or anything left to give. What then? “I think we’re just waiting to see who we’re left here for,” Condon’s Claire Thompson informs him. Sincere moments when Edgerton’s Grainier breaks down suggest things that are hard for him to let go of, as well as the toll that the years take on him. Even so, another key moment finds Macy’s Arn Peeples remembering nature and the world while he still can, and while he’s still there. “Beautiful, ain’t it? All of it. Every bit of it.”