Train Dreams

Wednesday, September 10: This screening will be presented with open captions. Live captioning will be provided for the live onstage components.

Set in the Pacific Northwest during the early decades of the 20th century, Train Dreams is a captivating character study that unfolds in a world of natural splendour and voracious industry. Adapted from two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, the latest from director Clint Bentley (TIFF ’21’s Jockey) features an exquisite lead performance by Joel Edgerton, alongside memorable supporting turns from Oscar nominees Felicity Jones and William H. Macy.

Robert Grainier (Edgerton) is a taciturn labourer with a knack for stumbling upon scenes of awe and horror. His work in the logging industry and the construction of rail bridges throughout Idaho and Washington finds him bearing witness to marvels of engineering — and to the horrendous treatment of Chinese immigrant workers at the hands of peers and superiors alike.

Robert finds quietude and solace in his marriage to Gladys (Jones), the forging of their modest rural home, and the birth of their daughter. But work pulls Robert away from his loved ones, while the suspicion that he is subject to some obscure curse follows him through his days and haunts his dreams.

Scripted by Bentley and frequent collaborator Greg Kwedar (Sing Sing, TIFF ’23), Train Dreams stays true to Johnson’s penchant for conjuring strangeness and wonder. Elegant voiceover narration from the great Will Patton helps to illuminate the inarticulate Robert’s responses to the mixture of eerie phenomena and dizzying progress that surrounds him. This is a beguiling film about getting swept into the current of incomprehensible change.

ROBYN CITIZEN