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PARK CITY, UTAH Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Train Dreams is a film of considerable beauty and simplicity. It captures a bygone era to remind us that all eras become bygone eventually. Will Patton narrates the film, based on Denis Johnson's novella, following Robert Grainer (Joel Edgerton) from the 1930s to '60s. He works as a logger and bridge builder in Idaho supporting his wife Gladys (Felicity Jones) and their daughter (Zoe Rose Short).
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Logging is dangerous work as Robert witnesses several deaths in tree falling accidents. He also witnesses violence when coworkers attack a Chinese railroad worker on a bridge building job, an incident which haunts him the rest of his life.
The dominance of trains and lumber already represent 20th century industry. They will be quaint by the end of the century, and even by the end of Robert's life, but for the Grainer family they are the entire world.
The film acknowledges that Robert is contributing to deforestation. For him, it's just work but there are not infinite trees in the U.S.
One fellow logger even erroneously guesses they can keep logging for 1000 years. It only takes the emergence of chainsaws to leave Robert behind.
While it lasts though, working out in the wilderness is beautiful for Robert, despite numerous deadly dangers in rolling logs or falling branches. A squared off frame emphasizes the height of the wilderness rather than the wide scope.
If logging seems like a highly specific world in which to set a movie, consider how it represents the way America has limited use for workers of every generation. Those chainsaws will eventually get outmoded too, and as much as adapting is vital, caring for our skilled craftsman should be equally important.
Gladys and Robert have a cabin on one acre of land in the woods. Their life does not feel lonely, but rather a fulfilling kind of solitude.
Gladys is not in the movie much since it's mostly Robert working in the forest. She suggests visiting him but thankfully he declined because it is too dangerous.
Given the incidents depicted on the job, were Gladys to show up, let alone their daughter, Train Dreams might become a Final Destination movie awaiting disaster. Alas, their idyllic life still can't last both because of the volatility of nature and the impending tyranny of modern life.
Robert remembers some of the characters he meets logging, including one who values the solitude even more than himself. Characters like Apostle Frank (Paul Schneider) and explosives expert Arn Peeples (William H. Macy) babble endlessly on the job, but the point is that they are the America Robert remembers.
The train dreams of the title include the trains that take Robert from job to job, including one that employs him directly. A train took the orphaned Robert to Idaho as a child, and he periodically has nightmares about trains.
By the end, Robert can no longer tell if he's dreaming or meeting a real person. The people who have died are obviously dreams, but others also disappear after a visit suggesting dreams of the people he's met ultimately overtake Robert.
Train Dreams is a poignant epic about 20th century American life. Director Clint Bentley, adapting the book with Greg Kwedar, and the cast take viewers gently through the years in an evolving midwest.
This review was updated after a second screening with improved sound and further analysis.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
