Train Dreams is a beautiful film, one of the most beautiful I’ve seen recently, but it isn’t for everyone, and it’s very heavy on the mind and heart.
Train Dreams (2025) was a great film. I didn’t necessarily plan on watching until I saw some clips of it online. I was unfamiliar with the director’s work, along with a couple of the people involved. But after I saw what Train Dreams (2025) looked like, I was blown away. The film looks magnificent. The lighting and cinematography are incredible. I haven’t seen a movie shot this well when it comes to natural lighting and outdoor cinematography since The Revenant.
Train Dreams (2025) also popped up on my radar because it’s set in one of my favorite eras, the late 1800s and early 1900s. There’s a lot of history from that time, and we have a lot of records from that time. The further you go back in history, the harder it is to verify records. But in this timeframe, many remnants of that world still surround us.
The story in Train Dreams (2025) is nothing spectacular, and that seems to be the point of the film. The movie is somewhat uneventful, but in a good way, since we don’t see many films like this anymore. Movies that are more about feelings, poetry, and the bigger picture, rather than just being 1000 miles a minute, are very special. You don’t need everything explained in the movie, which, like Train Dreams (2025), doesn’t necessarily explain itself to you as well.
This period in American history is also a popular subject in modern media, such as Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, one of the greatest-selling games ever, and my personal favorite is the second game. So if you’re a fan of Red Dead, you’ll definitely see a similar timeframe in this Train Dreams (2025). This movie isn’t about the Wild West or anything, but it captures that early-1900s America look.
Train Dreams (2025) is based on a book, but it feels more like a poetic movie than anything else. The movie is about a simple man’s life. And this man’s life—he works various jobs and has a family. Unfortunately, bad things happen to him, and he never seems to fully recover. His character is more of a hermit, so he has a hard time dealing with people and living in general.
Train Dreams (2025) represents a time in history where people’s lives weren’t necessarily the most cinematic. I use that word almost ironically because this movie is extremely cinematic, but the things people would do back then weren’t anything that would seem entertaining or even particularly simple compared to what we do today in our everyday lives.
People in America at this time led relatively simple lives: they worked jobs that weren’t as complicated as today’s, then went home to their families. That was about it for most people at the time, and the film did a great job of reflecting that. And, in a way, the simple life this film reflects is beautiful, something many people long for today. But it’s a blessing and a curse because sometimes it’s hard to have nothing.
Spoiler ahead. In Train Dreams (2025), our protagonist, Robert, played by Joel Edgerton, makes a living by cutting trees and then coming home to his wife and young daughter. But one day, his wife and daughter were seemingly dead in a house fire when he was out of town.
The rest of the film is about him dealing with that and moving on with his life, but the catch is that he doesn’t really move on. He thinks they are coming back and aren’t really dead, even though they more than likely are. Given the incredibly simple life he led and his hermit-like nature, he didn’t necessarily have the tools to move on.
For me, Train Dreams (2025) is almost like a cautionary tale. As terrible as the circumstances were and as awful as life can be, you have to be able to move on to be able to live a better life. In the film, he never really moves on, and while his life has high moments, it never reaches the heights that he had with his family.
Going back to the poetic nature of Train Dreams (2025), the beautiful moments he has in his life, scattered throughout the film, are like the rhymes in a poem. They are pretty and help tie one’s life together. But in that day and age, many men led simple, maybe not the happiest, lives. But there was a moment in his life when he was thrilled, and he had everything he could want.
There was a great quote someone made about this film. It went something like, “What a blessing and curse it is to feel.” I believe the film touches on how, in that time in America, many people had hard circumstances and had to make the best of them.
This is just one man’s story among the millions of people who lived in this country before us. Sometimes their stories aren’t the most extraordinary, but they can teach us something. He isn’t a superhero, and he isn’t a perfect person by any means. But he makes a pretty interesting protagonist in Train Dreams.
Train Dreams (2025) was very heavy, so I won’t necessarily go into it thinking you’re not about to feel some very heavy emotion. This movie reaches into your heart and asks very hard and deep questions. The film doesn’t have a happy ending and has very depressing moments. But for this man and many others, life has been very depressing, with happy moments few and far between.
I think anyone watching this could learn to soak up the great moments and want to move on when faced with adversity and hardships. Robert was unable to do this. He was a recluse, and he lived in a time when there was only one small town nearby.
Nowadays, you can go on the Internet and connect with millions of people for better or worse, but you still have an interaction with someone. You can walk down the street and talk to somebody in under a minute.
On a quick sidenote, I’m glad Train Dreams (2025) received some Golden Globe nominations. And the original song written for the film’s credits by Nick Cave is incredible. It got a nomination as well.
The poetic nature of Robert’s life in Train Dreams (2025) will stay with me for a long time and resonate with me as I navigate my own adversities. I look forward to watching this film many years down the line with more life experiences.
