Train Dreams
This review contains spoilers
- Not a ton to add here, but just to spoil/elaborate so I remember... his family dies in a fire and then the rest of his movie is him trying to move past it but mostly failing. And yet, it's not weighed down by the heaviness. It feels genuine. It's powerful. The way it handles grief, and trying to find something meaningful to hold onto as you drift through life... wonderful stuff.
- Yeah, the plot isn't much. It's been done. But it doesn't have to be much in this instance to work really well.
- The other point is just that Edgerton may be the best actor working today when it comes to facial acting. I always say he has a naturally sympathetic face that can also hide menace incredibly well behind it. Only this time around, there is no menace. Dude is just genuinely a good person who has been dealt a horrific tragedy. And so we get to watch an absolute master, specifically at this kind of content, deal with it. Man, this guy's underrated.
- Yeah, the plot isn't much. It's been done. But it doesn't have to be much in this instance to work really well.
- The other point is just that Edgerton may be the best actor working today when it comes to facial acting. I always say he has a naturally sympathetic face that can also hide menace incredibly well behind it. Only this time around, there is no menace. Dude is just genuinely a good person who has been dealt a horrific tragedy. And so we get to watch an absolute master, specifically at this kind of content, deal with it. Man, this guy's underrated.
Mini Review: This is one of those slow burns that creep on you. You're watching this guy just kind of exist, he finds something great, then something horrific happens, and then you have to watch him exist only sadder. I'm being reductive, obviously, but my point is, on the surface it's not much. In execution, however, it's sad, gripping and meaningful. An excellent meditation on grief. And you know what? I blame Edgerton. That dude is one of the most talented actors working. I love that guy.
More Reviews of Train Dreams
hezarkhani
Story of all of us trying to find meaning in life and we finally find it as it slips away. Visually beautiful. I’m a sucker for movies about a loner who lives in the woods. It m...
Janomi
Train Dreams is painfully slow, to the point that it often becomes boring. Pacing is the biggest issue with the film. I can appreciate a quiet, reflective story, but this one fr...
Darren
What made Malick’s A Hidden Life much less successful than his other later works was how plot focused it was despite having some beauty to look at (of course there’s a lot of ot...
fra paolo
A train goes in one direction, along a track. Dreams are higgledy-piggledy inventions of memory that can defy the laws of physics. In dreams, sometimes yourself is not even the ...
glumpy_99
Dreamy, Malickian evocation of Edgerton’s life and times as Frontiersman is sometimes a little too wispy for its own good, with Bentley not having quite the confidence in tone t...
See all 11 reviews of Train Dreams
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