I wanted to love Train Dreams. I really, really, really, really wanted to love it.
I didn’t.
I respect it; I’m happy for it. I want other people to see it. But I’m never going to love it and I’m not going to see it again. That was a very dull 102 minutes. Don’t get me wrong – it was a sincere, honest, loving and slightly complex portrait of a simple man … but it was a dull sincere, honest, loving and slightly complex portrait of a simple man. And I sure don’t need to see it or anything like it again for a while.
Robert Grainer (Joel Edgerton) is a logger by profession. The century has turned from 19th to 20th and loggers are in demand. A lot of people need wood, and the Pacific Northwest has no shortage of trees. Robert lives in Idaho, sorta. He really just lives where the logging company asks him to log. This is a strangely dangerous profession. Broken bones happen all the time. One can die from a fallen tree (they don’t always fall the right way). Also, one can die from vigilante justice, and pure racism. Regarding the latter, early in Robert’s career, he witnesses a murder. Racist peers up and throw a Chinese immigrant off a bridge. This death haunts Robert for the rest of his life. The film doesn’t really do anything about it; Robert doesn’t become reformer, crusader, or rabble-rouser. He simply sees the ghost of the immigrant show up from time to time doing what everybody else in the film is doing most of the time, which is to say … nothing.
Eventually, Robert courts and weds Gladys (Felicity Jones), a woman who comes from a time and place where females could be named “Gladys” without everybody laughing hysterically. They have a low-key romance and build a low-key cabin together by the river where life is sweet, especially when the baby arrives.
I cannot describe anything further past this point, and readers will note I really haven’t described much at all – a quiet man logs and weds. Yup, that’s it. That’s 80%
of the film. Sometimes we catch Robert trying to figure it all out. Mostly we don’t. Eventually, a key plot point gives him an objective for the rest of the film, but you’ll be darn disappointed if you think that might move the film along any faster. It certainly will not.
If you’re like me, you are going to ask yourself more than once: Will something please happen?
Did I hate this film? No, I did not. It is sweet and quiet and sincere. Not sure I’ve seen a similar film since A River Runs Through It. But River Runs Through It was a Mad Max harrowing adventure compared to Train Dreams. The biggest selling point of this film is the understated-yet-powerful-ish performance of Joel Edgerton. This is his best performance ever, and I include Loving when I say that. Is it good enough to make you love the film? Only if you love Joel Edgerton, TBH. I think most of us are going to find this performance, and this entire film moving-and-sweet-but-dull. And I question whether this character has truly learned anything noteworthy in the decades the film gets to view him. As I say, I wanted to love this film, and I do respect it. You don’t make Train Dreams to garner paychecks or win awards -ironically- you make a film like Train Dreams because there is a story building inside of you that you have to tell, even if it’s a really boring story.
There once lived an axe-man named Grainer
Life was tough but he’s no complainer
He felled many trees
And proposed on his knees
If life were duller, it would drive you insaner
Rated PG-13, 102 Minutes
Director: Clint Bentley
Writer: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Denis Johnson
Genre: Movies you want to love but don’t
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People in love with Joel Edgerton
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People in love with plots
