The Reel Review
The life and death of logger and railroad worker Robert Grainier, born in 1889 in the Pacific Northwest, is chronicled in this epic historical drama starring Joel Edgerton and Oscar nominees Felicity Jones (The Brutalist, The Theory of Everything) and Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin). It is based on the poignant 2002 fictional novella by Denis Johnson.
In a career defining performance, Edgerton provides a character study of a man who, orphaned as a child without ever knowing his birthday or parents, lives a solitary life surrounded by breathtaking beauty juxtaposed against the awful brutality of humanity, until he discovers the love of his life, Agnes (Jones). The gentle love story has a poetic, lyrical quality until an unimaginable tragedy strikes, changing his life forever. An excellent Will Patton (who narrated the novella’s audiobook) narrates, with an also excellent Condon as a free-spirited loner who doles out some important advice later in Grainier’s golden years.
Written by Sing Sing filmmakers Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar and directed by Bentley, Train Dreams perfectly captures the individual epicness of the human experience, set to a backdrop of rapid technological advances and haunting images that capture the fleetingness of life (those boots nailed to tree, smoldering ruins of a home). It is the kind of film that will almost certainly trigger the viewer’s own emotions and impactful past memories. How awesome is it that movies like this are still made.
REEL FACTS
• Train Dreams director Clint Bentley says only a limited number of trees were actually felled during filming, with special effects and artificial props used much of the time.
• The Nick Cave song “Train Dreams” was not included in the version shown at the Sundance Film Festival but was added in subsequent releases.
• Train Dreams was filmed throughout the state of Washington.
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