Everything We Know About TIFF Sensation ‘Train Dreams’
Based on the beloved novella by Denis Johnson, Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier. His life unfolds during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th-century America. In the words of the star, Joel Edgerton, for TUDUM: “We’re used to watching characters on screen who are full of action. They’re creating their own destiny, and they’re pushing against obstacles. They’re fighting adversity, or they’re fighting adversaries.”
One of the Toronto Film Festival sensations is coming! Train Dreams uses the forest and its trees as a metaphor for change. While life changes, modernizes, and some jobs and lifestyles disappear, trees are everlasting, like silent witnesses to the passage of time.
Based on the beloved novella by Denis Johnson, Train Dreams is the moving portrait of Robert Grainier. His life unfolds during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th-century America. In the words of the star, Joel Edgerton, for TUDUM: “We’re used to watching characters on screen who are full of action. They’re creating their own destiny, and they’re pushing against obstacles. They’re fighting adversity, or they’re fighting adversaries.”
“I think there’s a real relatable engine to this movie,” says Edgerton. “Robert is absorbing the blows of the world, and moving in the streams and avenues that he’s allowed to move in, based on the life that he’s been given and the upbringing he had. And there’s a real potency to the quiet, ordinary life that most of us live.”
Apart from Edgerton as Robert Grainier, the movie’s cast is led by Academy Award nominee Felicity Jones as Gladys. That already has us totally in! In addition to them, Train Dreams features Nathaniel Arcand, Clifton Collins Jr., John Diehl, Paul Schneider, with Kerry Condon, and William H. Macy. Narrated by Will Patton.
As for the behind-the-scenes crew, Clint Bentley is in the director’s chair from a script by Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar. Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, William Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, and Michael Heimler will produce. Joel Edgerton, Scott Hinckley, Greg Kwedar, and John Friedberg will serve as executive producers.
The Plot:
The synopsis form Train Dreams is: “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 (Academy Award nominee Felicity 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 in the forests and trees he has felled.”