Train Dreams

2025 Netflix

Rated: PG-13

Length: 1 hr 42min

Drama

Directed by: Clint Bentley

Starring: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Clifton Collins Jr., Kerry Condon and William H. Macy.

The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Life

Train Dreams is a quiet, emotional drama that follows Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), a logger and railroad worker trying to build a simple life in the rough forests of the American Northwest in the early 1900s. He spends his days doing dangerous manual labor for the growing railroad, then returns to a small cabin where he lives with his loving wife Gladys (Felicity Jones) and their young daughter, hoping to give them a stable future as the modern world starts to creep in.

Early in the film, Robert is involved in an ugly incident when a Chinese laborer is falsely accused of theft, an event that plants a sense of guilt and unease in him that never quite goes away. As he keeps taking on risky jobs in logging and construction, the film shows how the railroad, dynamite work led by explosives expert Arn Peeples (William H. Macy), and the spread of industry slowly change the land and the people who depend on it. Robert’s work constantly pulls him away from home, hinting that the world he wants to protect is always at risk.

A terrible wildfire eventually tears through the valley where his cabin stands, wiping out almost everything and leaving Robert unsure of what happened to Gladys and their child. In the aftermath, he wanders between logging camps and small towns, crossing paths with fellow worker Boomer (Clifton Collins Jr.) and a practical, observant forestry services worker named Claire Thompson (Kerry Condon), who is stationed in a lonely lookout tower watching for future fires. These encounters show him different ways people cope with loss, change, and the harshness of frontier life.

As years pass, Robert grows older and more isolated, still haunted by memories of his family, the Chinese laborer, and the relentless advance of trains and highways through the wilderness. The movie follows him through small but powerful moments, watching new bridges go up, seeing modern machines arrive, and trying to find peace in the natural world around his cabin, until his life becomes a kind of quiet reflection on love, regret, and survival in a country racing toward progress. Train Dreams keeps the story simple and grounded, focusing more on feelings and atmosphere than big plot twists, making it a gentle but moving character study.

Director Clint Bentley brings together powerful storytelling, breathtaking visuals, and deeply human performances that connect on an emotional level. Joel Edgerton delivers a career-best performance, making the character of Robert Grainier feel completely real and relatable, while supporting actors like Felicity Jones and William H. Macy also shine in their roles. The cinematography immerses you in the natural world of the American West, capturing sunsets, forests, and campfires with an almost poetic touch. The music, composed by Bryce Dessner, adds to the movie’s gentle atmosphere, enhancing the emotions without trying to force them.

What really sets Train Dreams apart is its ability to depict the everyday dignity of ordinary people and the ways our lives are shaped by encounters and changes, both big and small. It’s a film that’s both intimate and mythic, it captures a sense of time passing and memories building up, something most movies rarely pull off this elegantly.

Ultimately, Train Dreams stands out because it is deeply honest, visually striking, and lets you truly step into Robert’s shoes, making it not just one of the best movies on Netflix this year, but a memorable, quietly rewarding experience that stays with you long after the credits roll. As Bobby would say:

Highly Recommended!

Turn off the lights and devices,

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage,

and Stream This Movie

on NETFLIX!

New Movie Train Dreams Debuts on Netflix Friday November 21, 2025

New Movie Train Dreams Debuts on Netflix Friday November 21, 2025

Train Dreams Is the Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Life

Joel Edgerton stars in the moving film from director Clint Bentley based on the Novella by Denis Johnson. Train Dreams premieres on Netflix Friday November 21, 2025.

FROM NETFLIX TUDUM:

Based on the beloved novella by Denis Johnson, Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier (Edgerton), whose life unfolds during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th-century America. Orphaned at a young age, Robert grows into adulthood among the towering forests of the Pacific Northwest, where he helps expand the nation’s railroad empire alongside men as unforgettable as the landscapes they inhabit. After a tender courtship, he marries Gladys (Jones) and they build a home together, though his work often takes him far from her and their young daughter. When his life takes an unexpected turn, Robert finds beauty, brutality, and newfound meaning for the forests and trees he has felled.

An ode to a vanishing way of life, an ever-evolving world, and to the extraordinary possibilities that exist within even the most simple of existences, Train Dreams captures a time and place that are now long gone, and the people who built a bridge to a future they could only dream of. Directed by Academy Award nominee Clint Bentley with a screenplay by Bentley and Academy Award nominee Greg Kwedar, the writing team behind Sing Sing, the film also stars Academy Award nominees William H. Macy and Kerry Condon.

Train Dreams

In The Land Of Saints And Sinners

2023 Samuel Goldwyn Films

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr 45min

Action ~ Crime ~ Thriller ~ Western

Directed by: Robert Lorenz

Starring: Liam Neeson, Kerry Condon, Jack Gleeson, Colm Meaney and Ciarán Hinds.

“A Saint’s gotta be a Sinner first.”

Liam Neeson stars as Finbar Murphy, a hit man quietly living in Glencomcille in Donegal, Ireland. Finbar masquerades as a bookseller and lives a sedentary life amongst the locals and is friends with the local Police Officer Vincent O’Shea (Ciarán Hinds). Secretly he does contract killing for the local crime boss Robert McQue (Colm Meaney). When Finbar returned home from WW II he found that his wife had died while he was away fighting. He fell into the bottle, having fallen into an alcohol-fueled deep dark depression. Robert convinced him to put his war talents to use and become a hitman for him. Finbar takes on a job kidnapping an ex-hitman from the town of Bantry. Troubled by the man’s words before Finbar kills him, he tells Robert afterwards he is done with killing. He wants to lead a quieter, richer life and help people, not off them.

As Robert is starting his new retirement from being an assassin, a group of IRA members have found their way to the quiet little seaside town. They have extended family there and are on the lam, being wanted for a bombing that killed three innocent children. They hole up in their sister-in-law Sinéad’s barn who works at the local tavern that Finbar frequents. Finbar runs into Sinéad’s daughter Moya fishing along the road and notices her bruised wrists. He eventually gets her to tell him who did this to her and she confesses it was one of the strangers staying in her Mom’s barn. Finbar asks Robert for advice in the matter, being very upset that one of them was hurting and abusing the child.

Robert decides to take matters into his own hands and do one more unsanctioned hit by kidnapping and killing the stranger named Curtis. As Curtis is forced out of the trunk of the car, he lashes at Finbar with a knife he had hidden. As the struggle ensues, Kevin (Jack Gleeson) who is Finbar’s protégé, happens onto the scene and helps Finbar. Doireann (Kerry Condon), the leader of the band of IRA members, starts to suspect foul play when Curtis disappears and tries to find out information about the town and the local crime scene. Which eventually leads her to Robert and the knowledge that Robert and Finbar know who and what she is. And that Finbar is responsible for Curtis’s disappearance.

What follows is a hunt and chase through the Irish sea bound countryside as Finbar and Kevin, and Doireann and her gang search each other out. It is classic Liam (which I found out is short for William) Neeson doing what he does best. And doing a FINE JOB OF IT AS WELL I might add. Colm Meaney and Ciarán Hinds are familiar faces, both being Irish actors you’ve seen in a lot of movies. Both very likeable in this movie. Jack Gleeson does a great job playing the young hired assassin who dreams of a better life in California. Kerry Condon, another Irish actor, deserves a shout out in this, absolutely marvelous job of portraying the hardened IRA member fighting and killing in the name of a free Ireland. A complete bad-ass full of anger and vulgarity with no scruples when it comes to the cause.

The movie was shot entirely in Ireland with all Irish Actors and an all Irish film crew. The director wanted to do it that way to add to the realism of the movie. It is a story about “The Troubles ” in Ireland in the 1970’s, the political upheaval and merciless killings and bombings. It is definitely Irish, complete with heavy Irish brogue dialogue that can be hard to understand. Think Irish before you watch it, practice your accent. It will help with understanding the dialogue. The scenery is beautiful along the rocky coastline, and the quiet little towns. It reminds me of an old Western movie with Liam being the cowboy who brings the bad guys to justice on his terms.

I really enjoyed this movie, being a fan of Liam Neeson I think this is one of his better movies. Again, I really liked Kerry Condon in this as well. I would recommend this one, especially if you like Liam Neeson and Ireland, it does center around the troubled history of the 1970’s and The IRA.

Highly Recommended! (Two in a row!-The Piano Lesson)

TWO THUMBS UP!