Film Review: TRAIN DREAMS (2025): Joel Edgerton is Oscar Nomination Worthy in This Slow-Moving and Effective Dramatic Film

Train Dreams Review

Train Dreams (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Clint Bentley, written by Greg Kwedar, Denis Johnson and Clint Bentley and starring Joel Edgerton, William H. Macy, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, Clifton Collins Jr., Alfred Hsing, John Patrick Lowrie, Rob Price, Paul Schneider, Nathaniel Arcand, John Diehl and Beau Charles.

Filmmaker Clint Bentley’s examination of an average working-class man in the early 20th century, Train Dreams, is commandeered by a terrifically complex lead turn by Joel Edgerton. This film portrays a realistic world where even when the money is tighter than its ever been, happiness can be found through human companionship, but at what cost? Suffering is inevitable and the movie captures the grim outlook of the time period for an average man such as the one Edgerton portrays here, Robert Grainier. Robert is a railroad worker who meets the woman of his dreams in Gladys (Felicity Jones). What follows is a heartbreaking story of love and loss that moves slowly, but steadily, and captures the essence of the time period it vividly displays on-screen almost to perfection.

Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life)’s films seem to have made an impression on the initial 1916 world that Train Dreams paints for the viewer. Like Malick’s body of work, Bentley’s movie is abstract, yet it could be deemed slightly more accessible than a Malick film for the every day viewer. That’s because of the quality of Edgerton’s work. This is the actor’s finest moment and he subtly captures the life of a man who’s falling apart inside who’s redeemed by love which he loses only to discover his own sense of purpose and what his life ultimately signified in the grand scheme of things. This is very profound material and although the picture moves slow, there is a distinct reason for that. It’s to show the emotional breakdown of a man, Robert, who lives on the edge and captures a glimpse of the American Dream, if only for a brief period of time.

Felicity Jones’s Gladys is remarkably conveyed on-screen. She’s almost angelic in nature as the yin to Robert’s yang. As Gladys and Robert have a child together, their partnership strengthens in a way that is dramatically proficient. These characterizations both have depth which makes the characters’ demise all the more heart wrenching as the film moves towards a mid-point immersed in sadness and follows it through with an ending that packs quite a wallop. It’s simply phenomenal. Robert seems to be a cursed character due to early events in the film and, in that regard, Gladys is his true blessing even if she’s just, potentially, a temporary part of his life as dictated by the tragic events of the film’s plot.

William H. Macy, almost unrecognizable, appears in the movie as the smart beyond his years, Arn Peeples. An older gentleman with much wisdom to share, Peeples becomes a driving force of the movie with a fate that seems pre-destined given the time period the film sets itself in and the nature of the type of person Peeples is. Paul Schneider’s Apostle Frank serves an equal purpose in the construction of the film’s premise as his character also appears for a brief time to share words with Robert to try to guide Robert on his own uncertain path in life. Macy and Schneider’s philosophical performances are credible and are dynamic enough to shed light on all the sorrowful themes the movie presents to its audience.

Train Dreams also features the stellar Kerry Condon as another intelligent woman, Claire, who makes an impact on Robert in the latter part of his life. Condon and Edgerton play off each other with nuanced precision that ultimately works in the film’s favor to present its complex portrait of the world during the time period the picture immerses itself in. Felicity Jones is absolutely sensational as Robert’s true love and the scenes between her and Edgerton elevate the movie from an ordinary one to a prestige picture thanks to Jones’s quietly complicated every woman who is, perhaps, the only woman Robert could truly ever love other than his own child. John Diehl also impresses in his work as Billy, one of Robert’s colleagues. Finally, Nathaniel Arcand’s shopkeeper, Jack, stands out as well as another memorable turn within the picture.

Train Dreams has its minor flaws. It sometimes gets bogged down in too many surreal and abstract scenes that I’m afraid could keep audiences at a distance from the story line and the characters. Still, though, the performance by Joel Edgerton could just win the acclaimed actor a well-deserved Oscar-nomination in a year in which Oscar will surely throw us an upset in the Best Actor category. Train Dreams reminds us that the American Dream isn’t guaranteed, but if one looks hard enough, almost anybody could find it, if only for a potentially small amount of time. This film breaks the viewer’s heart as it shows its many human layers which are, at times, unnerving in their excesses.

Rating: 8/10

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