Dir: Clint Bentley | Dir: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, William H Macy | US Drama 2025
Clint Bentley may well be Terrence Malick’s future successor. Or so it seems in this meditative drama in which Joel Edgerton captivates as a lonely logger in the abundant forests of idaho.
Robert grew up an orphan in Idaho, quietly accepting his lot until his life is filled with meaning when he meets Gladys (Jones) and never looks back. Train Dreams is filled with the quietly intimate mellowness of the couple’s glowing euphoria in their cosy log cabin, contrasting with the brutal harshness of his toil in the verdant landscapes, especially when logging season forces the two of them apart.
But thunder clouds often loom once Robert’s shuts his eyes at nighttime haunted by witnessing a racist assault on a Chinese labourer (Bentley never offers insight into all this, unlike the original novella by Robert Grainier chronicling the evolution of 20th century America).
The men Robert works with are a world-weary unknowable crew burying their private lives, apart from one voluble old guy called Arn (Macy) who is in charge of the highly dangerous explosives. All this suits Robert’s introverted personality that only comes alive when he returns to the family fold with his young daughter Kate and the chickens, reflecting back on how this was the best of times.
Gladys is ambitious and suggests a plan where the two of them could eventually set up their own sawmill, and Robert sees this as a possibility after he puts in one more season of logging to finance it all.
So this tranquil tale unfolds with its plangent score by Nick Cave and sublime settings of the countryside – and later – the big city eloquently recounting a long-gone era in America’s history. Robert discovers how nature can be a friend and a foe and dreams of the future and moments of happiness are often brought to an abrupt ending by tragedy. @Meredith Taylor
Train Dreams is in cinemas from 7 November and on Netflix from 21 November.