Train Dreams

Aims to enchant audiences with lyricism, to make things “relevant” by adding a bit of racial violence, to build their sympathies by following this up with some mute haunted guilt, to wrench their emotions by showing the depths of grief, and ultimately to reward them with a feeling of wonder at the meaningfulness of it all that comes with the approach of death. The filmmakers seem to believe that in this way they are offering some kind of “alternative” to more “mainstream” cinema, but the truth is that all of this, just as much as any genre movie, is really based on a certain kind of formula, and a pretty rigid one at that. Clearly the director admires Terrence Malick, but BADLANDS (1973) is about deluded spree killers and the rise of sensationalist media, and DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978) is about a woman who pretends her lover is her brother so she can benefit from an affair with her boss – not at all the kind of sentimental clichés on which this is built. Consequently, the film only succeeds in drawing attention to the difference between the superficial aspects of Malick’s style and the real foundations of his approach.