Film Review | Working Off the Railroad

‘Train Dreams’, Teeming with Rustic Americana, is a Moving Adaptation of Denis Johnson’s Miraculous Micro-epic Novella

ByJosef Woodard
Wed Nov 19, 2025 | 1:12pm

Nature, by more than one definition, is a primary theme, fabric, and driving force in the quietly powerful filmTrain Dreams, a true and sensitive adaptation of the late Denis Johnson’s 2011 micro-epic novella. Firstly, there is the awesome power and presence of nature herself, in the form of the ruggedly beautiful Northwestern landscape (in a story set in Idaho but shot in Washington State). Nature doles out both wonder and reckoning for those seeking to tame and exploit it, through logging and railroad building in the pre-industrial and post–Gold Rush era of the early 20th century.

On a more intimate and vulnerable front, the saga deals with the nature of things human — including the hands of sometimes cruel fate, a gnawing quest for meaning and love, and the pitiless, inexorable chug of progress. At the tough yet tender center of the narrative is our quiet American protagonist Robert Grainier, played with a stoic intensity by Joel Edgerton in his finest role to date.

Grainier is a man haunted by ghosts of the past and future, conveyed through montages of flashbacks and flashforwards. He’s uncertain about his origins or parents and uncertain about his future or underlying purpose, as an itinerant logger longing to extend his happy domestic life back home in a cabin by the river, with love of his life Gladys (the radiant Felicity Jones) and an adored baby daughter (technical question: how did they a get a wee toddler to deliver her heart-melting lines on cue?). But bliss is in fleeting supply, as various adversities strike home and turn Grainier into a lost soul and grizzly loner.

In his travels, both literal and internally, Grainier runs into beacons of wisdom, in the form of a logging veteran and plain speak sage (played by William H. Macy with his usual flair), the kindly Native American store keep Boomer (Clifton Collins Jr.) and a forest watch woman arriving late in the story (Kerry Condon). Striking up a friendship and relating to his sense of existential alienation, she points out that “the world needs a hermit in the woods as much as a preacher in the pulpit,” a line taken directly from the book. (Another brotherly encounter, if brief, is with an aged and hirsute logger played by character actor John Diehl, a former Ojai-an who also, incidentally, played Fred Trump in Barry Levinson’sArmageddon Time.)

Director/co-writer Clint Bentley and his co-writer partnerGreg Kwedar are relatively new to the Hollywood game, but entered widespread exposure with a bang, with the powerful 2023 filmSingSing. Here, the pair have crafted a beauteous and moving adaptation of Johnson’s small miracle of a book, with a film somehow both sprawling and close to the heart. Unobtrusive narration, the omniscient eye from cinematographer Adolpho Veloso, and Bryce Dessner’s subtle musical score guide the story — and backstory — along, as we follow Grainier’s wandering and sometimes wall-stopped path. The tale, beyond its deeply personal focus, is also about the restless and ever-expanding state of America itself.

Train Dreams is a unique gothic Americana narrative yet is also fueled by hope and an essential goodness in the fog of life. The film reaches a perfect endpoint with the sound of Nick Cave’s voice, as his theme song segues into the end credits. The chorus: “Lately, I’ve been having dreams / Crazy dreams I can’t explain / A woman standing in a field of flowers / And a screaming locomotive train / Crazy dreams that go on for hours / And I can’t begin to tell you how that feels.”

Train Dreams is currently playing at theRiviera Theatre. Clickhere to see the SBIFF Film Society conversation with Writer/Director Clint Bentley and Actor Joel Edgerton.