Train Dreams (2025)
Directed by: Clint Bentley
Premise: Based on the novella by Denis Johnson. Spanning the first half of the twentieth century, Robert (Joel Edgerton) works in the logging and railroad industries of the Pacific Northwest.
What Works: Train Dreams is a beautifully produced film. The moviemakers strike a balance between polished cinematography and fluid camera techniques and maintaining the rugged tone. This movie captures the physicality of logging and construction. The natural environs are vivid and lush and Adolpho Veloso’s cinematography captures the feel of being in the wilderness. The production design does the same with the period setting. The sets and characters look organic to their time and place. Train Dreams is led by Joel Edgerton as Robert. It’s a perfect match of a character and an actor and this is one of Edgerton’s best performances. The role of Robert is suited to many of Edgerton’s strengths as an actor. Edgerton has a masculine look but he also projects vulnerability. Train Dreams marshals those qualities and the protagonist and the movie itself have a gentle masculinity. The sequences of Robert on the job and working with the construction and logging crews are particularly strong for their characters and camaraderie. Especially notable is William H. Macy in a supporting role as a member of the logging crew. Macy inhabits and enlarges the small part. Train Dreams has impressive scope. The story spans decades with Robert living a simple and reclusive life while the world goes through tremendous cultural and technological change. We’re left to ponder whether Robert’s isolation is for better or worse. Overlapping with popular western themes, Train Dreams is a thoughtful mediation on the mythology of rugged individualism.
What Doesn’t: Train Dreams does not follow the norms of Hollywood filmmaking. While there is a story, Robert is not a character working toward a concrete and discernable goal. Ordinarily that would be a flaw but Train Dreams’ prioritization of the internal over the external complements the poetic filmmaking style. Robert is the fixed object around which the rest of the world evolves. The looser narrative structure results in a film that sometimes appears to be meandering. It’s not. The filmmaking is actually quite controlled but the lack of an obvious motivation requires some patience and Robert’s relationship with a Forest Service employee (Kerry Condon) does feel a bit incomplete. Train Dreams features narration by Will Patton. Voiceover ought to communicate information that the audience would not otherwise know and that’s generally the case in Train Dreams but the narration is sometimes intrusive.
Disc extras: Available on Netflix.
Bottom Line: Train Dreams recalls the work of Terrence Malick in its tone and lyricism. Mixing the brutality of frontier life with a tender and delicate manner, Train Dreams is both emotionally affecting and thought provoking.
Episode: #1078 (December 14, 2025)