The House | “One of the most memorable films of the last year”: Baroness Chakrabarti on ‘Train Dreams’

Robert Grainier with his daughter, Kate | Image courtesy of Netflix | © 2025 BBP Train Dreams. LLC

4 min read57 min

In previous times of major crisis, the United States provided hope, sometimes even mythologised, as rescue for the world. Today it can at least still offer stories of self-examination and solace. If the 20th was the American century, cinema was surely its great art form.

In Train Dreams – Clint Bentley’s 2025 film inspired by Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella – the simple life of woodsman and itinerant labourer, Robert Grainier, becomes the story of the country itself, from his birth in the 1886 of horses and carts to his death amidst the space race in 1968. In this respect, it might appeal to fans of the previous year’s The Life of Chuck by Mike Flanagan. This time, however, the form is more rural elegy than science fantasy.

Grainier is an orphan who drops out of school and lives a hard and hermit-like existence until he meets his future wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones). His orphanhood represents both the dislocation and stoic heroism of a migrant pioneering nation. Played with quiet but captivating pathos by Joel Edgerton, his precise ethnicity seems ambiguous.

Issues of race come to the fore on at least three memorable occasions. First, when Robert is complicit in a brutal incident involving a Chinese logger, Fu Sheng (Alfred Hsing). This episode forever haunts him and he feels cursed as a result of it. Secondly, when an African American cowboy arrives to avenge the racially motivated murder of his brother. Finally, Robert is befriended by Ignatius Jack (Nathaniel Arcand), a Native American who seems to understand both him and their surroundings better than so many others.

As so often in fine cinema, the score plays an essential part

The nobility of rural life is explored both via its various dangers and privations and in the way that neighbours embrace natural duty, travelling considerable distances to check on one another.

The environment is a major theme of the film, with some stunning locations cherished by Adolpho Veloso’s exquisite and rightly Oscar-nominated cinematography. We see it change over the years and one night around the campfire on a “cut”, the veteran explosives expert (played by the impeccably understated William H Macy) expresses his regret at what they have been doing to the forest all their working lives. The forest almost appears to exact her revenge by way of the various casualties that result from tall fallen trees and large branches. The animal kingdom is also represented by way of the relationship between Robert and his dogs in particular.

As so often in fine cinema, the score plays an essential part. Bryce Dessner has been understandably lauded for a string-based soundtrack using period-appropriate instruments, enhanced by modern synthesisers. There are nods to Philip Glass and Michael Nyman. Both the harshness and beauty of the landscape is evoked alongside the intrusion of industrialisation in the form of the all-important railway. Indeed, the music joins the best tradition of train sounds and rhythms, almost magically conjured for the screen experience by way of acoustic instruments. The title song, co-written by Nick Cave, receives another of the film’s worthy Academy Award nominations. 

Whether Oscar glory follows or not, I recommend Train Dreams as one of the most thoughtful and memorable films of the last year.

Baroness Chakrabarti is a Labour peer

Train Dreams

Directed by: Clint Bentley

Broadcaster: Netflix