Watch Train Dreams on Netflix // Buy book (paid link)
Written by: Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar (screenplay by), Denis Johnson (based on the novella by)
Directed by: Clint Bentley
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Clifton Collins Jr., Felicity Jones, Paul Schneider, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
Logger and railroad worker Robert Grainier leads a life of unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century
Verdict
The things Robert saw in his lifetime and the experiences he's had. It's a movie that's so simple, looking at moments from a lifetime, but Robert saw the burgeoning world and a rise in industrialization. He lived as a hermit in the woods for much of his life but managed to see a flight into space. He experienced joy and sadness, straddling what the world was and would become. It's a contemplative movie. No one will every straddle a time period quite like that where technology advanced so rapidly. It captures a feeling so few movies can.
Watch It.
Review
So much of the movie is Robert observing the world and trying to make sense of the violence and tragedy that's mixed with the wonder and splendor in nature. His life spans the dawn of flight to the first space mission.
Having read the book, this is a great adaptation. The movie makes several changes that strengthen the story, and the film's conclusion is stronger than the book's.
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| Felicity Jones, Joel Edgerton play Gladys, Robert Grainier |
An orphan shipped to Idaho at six years old, Robert (Joel Edgerton) had never ventured very far. He finds purpose when he meets his future wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones). A constant narration notes the milestones of his life as we see important memories. He's a logger that takes a job with the railroad, regretting it when he sees a Chinese man thrown from the bridge just for being Chinese. It's a memory that haunts Robert for the rest of his life, creeping into his dreams.
He goes back to logging, working all day without talking to some of the men. Other workers talk too much. He feels the pull of having to work but wanting to be with his wife and newborn daughter. The narration gives this a fair amount of hindsight, stating that despite the lack of money those moments with his family where some of his happiest times. He and his wife plan for the future, hoping to start a small farm so that he won't have to travel for work.
This is a contemplative movie. All of Robert's memories are intertwined. He can't divorce the good from the bad. He goes back to logging after a significant break. It's amazing just in his lifetime that he witnesses a time when trees were felled just by hand saws and now powered chainsaws are the tool of choice. He doesn't know if he changed or the people, but he has no interest in logging. He becomes a carriage driver, not wanting to leave the town in which he's spent most of his life.
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| Joel Edgerton plays Robert Grainier |
Imagine seeing what Robert has seen, the burgeoning new world. He's seen society change, modernize. During that he's stayed in the woods in his log cabin. Most of the movie is Robert in the woods, on the outskirts of civilization. Later in life Robert travels to Spokane in the sixties. It's a culture shock for us and certainly for him. He sees John Glenn's space flight, unsure of what exactly he's watching. It's strange to see him near a television. This is a man that was born before the airplane was invented and is now watching a space mission. Technology has changed rapidly. This is a guy that built his own cabin.
One of the last scenes is Robert's ride in a biplane. It's an amazing sequence, a culmination of the entire film as Robert experiences the exhilaration of the ride and several events and memories from the movie. It's a wonderful scene. This is one of those movies that gets better with each passing moment, and the biplane scene ends on a great note.
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