"Train Dreams" is adapted from Denis Johnson’s novella of the same name. The film, directed by Clint Bentley, is set in the late 1880s around Robert Grainier who at a very young age was sent west on one of the many ‘Orphan Trains’ delivering children to families.
In the beautiful expanse of the wooded Northwest, Robert matures and finds work as a logger and eventually as a laborer on the railroad. Always somewhat of a loner, Robert’s life changes with the blessing of a lovely wife and daughter.
We experience life, as Robert does; witnessing the cruelties of man against man, the harshness of early life out west and pleasures and tragedies life brings. The arc of the narrative works in events and issues of the times; unfair treatment of the Chinese, racism, destruction of the environment, Haley's Comet, the disastrous wildfire of 1910 known as ‘The Big Burn’ and of course, the onset of technology.
Joel Edgerton plays Robert and Felicity Jones plays his wife. I noted the appearance of William Macy as one of the loggers and may have missed some others. Will Patton does a beautiful job of narrating.
The film was slow-paced as one might expect life to be in remote west of the early 20th Century. It was beautifully shot, well-acted and so timely as we see even today, Nature is a powerful force that can change life in an instant and technology is forever leaving many of us be.
