Director: Clint Bentley
Writers: Clint Bentley, Denis Johnson, Greg Kwedar
Stars: Joel Edgerton, Clifton Collins, Jr., Felicity Jones
Synopsis: Based on Denis Johnson’s beloved novella, Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker who leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century.
Robert (Joel Edgerton) is a rugged man who comes from no family and goes to work as a logger in the early 20th century, a job full of beauty and danger. He cuts down tree after tree to help clear a path for a new train that will cut through and cross rivers. It’s a deep blue-collar job that doesn’t pay much, but the people he meets are veterans of the trade and know the serious dangers, such as trees suddenly falling and striking workers. Robert sees some of that, and after a brief period of remembrance, they just go back to work. It’s a life of solitude he accepts until he falls in love with Gladys (Felicity Jones) and has a child with her.
Living in their cabin built by Robert, life is mixed because he has to work but it means being away from his family from time to time. It’s something neither he nor Gladys like, as she wants him to settle down and start a farm on the fertile land they live on. They are surrounded by nature with beautiful scenery that only Washington State and Idaho could bring, but there are other violent tendencies that take place. Besides falling trees, Robert watches others act murderously onto others, and more horrifyingly, what mother nature can do to its more scenic areas.
It is man-versus-nature throughout the story, even as the movie goes decade by decade following Robert into old age. He talks about the heavy labor needed to build a bridge for trains, only to see a concrete and steel bridge for cars built thirty years later, making their wooden bridge obsolete. At some point, Robert gets himself into the city which has rapidly changed, especially when he sees a television and live satellite shot of astronaut John Glenn in his ship orbiting the moon. A woman tells Robert this and he doesn’t believe it, showing how far isolated he has been and refuses to leave the wild where he was born.
The supporting cast in their short roles all manage their time perfectly. William H. Macy is a standout as an explosive expert loved by the crew, while Kerry Condon plays a solitary woman working in the park service where Robert lives, having her own set of hidden grief. The smaller roles, other loggers, the storekeeper, and even a red dog that suddenly appears to accompany Robert all fill in the holes on Robert’s life path. It feels like a trance at times meeting these figures and rolling along the years filled with nightmares Robert has about what he has seen and the lack of closure with certain events.
Based on Denis Johnson’s novella with Will Patton’s stone-voiced narration, director Clint Bentley and his co-writer, Greg Kwedar, turn to a more poetic story that is set in the past rather than the now. Moving from prison in New York state to the Pacific Northwest, the humanism they bring falls heavily on our consciousness with every scene moving time-to-time through Robert’s prism. Heavy doses of Terrence Malick can be seen through Adolpho Vesso’s lush cinematography, capturing that continuous “magic hour” lighting, the fierceness of fire, and snow being clear as the sky. Bryce Dressner’s score uses various instruments to create this country-like melancholy backdrop to accompany the whole life of a singular man.
Train Dreams manages to float through the feelings of Robert as he goes on with his life, holding the pain he feels and rarely expresses it. It’s about the regrets of not acting upon things he could’ve stopped, and the reflection of how back he has held himself from going forward with the times. The capsule of this period from 100 years ago is something long gone, yet Bentley is able to put out a subtle drama based on visions and meditation on what life can bring, even to someone who is left alone and yet makes valuable connections to others.
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