Train Dreams

UK Release Date. 21 November 2025
Certification. 12A
Running Time. 1 hour 42 min
Director. Clint Bentley
Cast. Kerry Condon, Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, William H. Macy.
Rating. 75%

Review.

The acclaimed filmmaker Clint Bentley's second feature-length film, Train Dreams, is an elegy for a country that America once was. A monumentally powerful story, centring on the life of Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) - a quiet, gentle man who makes a living from logging in the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the 20th century. 

It is an understatedly ambitious film - a tale of a simple life in a complex world - one that conveys more than most by saying less and feeling more.

Much of this is down to a career-best performance from Joel Edgerton. Easily, the best performance I've seen from Edgerton up to this point. The loneliness, the regret and the sorrow are palpable. Edgerton gives so much while saying so little.

Every shot is immaculately presented - from the candlelit log cabins to the lush, verdant forests that Robert works in - thanks to Bentley's direction and cinematographer Adolpho Veloso, whom Bentley worked with on his debut feature, Jockey. Comparisons with fellow auteurs, Terrence Malick, Lars Von Trier and Chloé Zhao, are inevitable, especially the ethereal existential yearning and prominent juxtaposition of humans and nature. 

However, even though Train Dreams is breathtaking to absorb, it's the screenplay (adapted from Denis Johnson's Pulitzer Prize-nominated novella of the same name) by Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar [the creative duo behind 2023's similarly impressive Sing Sing] that elevates the film to a piece of art. The story is told in fragments, as though the audience is flicking through a scrapbook of memories, supported by a warm and knowing narration delivered by Will Patton that reinforces the literary experience. Yet this device is never overbearing or explaining the obvious. Patton’s narration is essential to the grandeur of the film, while also denoting the intricacies of Robert’s life that he wouldn’t share, since he’s often in isolation.

Train Dreams is, without a doubt, one of the most extraordinary films of the year. Haunting, serenely composed and devastatingly beautiful. Bentley's film will shake you to your core and leave a lasting impact like few other films this year will.