We're long past the point of bemoaning the fact that some films acquired by Netflix receive a limited theatrical run.
It's just a fact of life - something film buffs are used to living with.
However occasionally, a film pops up on the streaming service that makes you feel it should have been given more time on the cinema circuit.
Clint Bentley's 'Train Dreams' is one of those films.
Adapted from the 2011 novella of the same name by the American author and poet Denis Johnson, it's an exquisitely made drama about the tragic life of an Idaho railway construction worker during the 20th Century.
Narrated by Will Patton, it stars Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier who we are told arrived in the community of Bonners Ferry as a young orphan on the Great Northern Railway with no recollection of his early years.
Struggling to find a purpose in life, we see him drop out of school and encounter the harsh realities of life early on like the rounding up and expulsion of Chinese people in the town and stumbling upon a dying man who has been knifed in the woods.
That sense that he has no real purpose alters when he meets Felicity Jones' Gladys at church who he falls for.
Hopelessly devoted to each other, the couple marry, build a log cabin in the woods with a stunning view of the river and have a daughter together.
Robert lands work with the Spokane International Railway, cutting down trees and building railway tracks from the wood.
Occasionally amid all the beauty, the harsh realities of life again rear their head.
A Gospel obsessed co-worker is gunned down in front of his colleagues by a stranger who reveals that it is an act of vengeance for the murder of his brother in New Mexico.
Several co-workers die when struck by a falling tree - their graves marked by a pair of boots nailed to a tree trunk.
Robert is particularly haunted by the singling out during one shift of a Chinese co-worker, Alfred Hsing's Fu Sheng who he witnesses being thrown off a bridge to his death.
With no explanation provided for the murder, Robert feels guilty that he helped the gang who killed Fu Sheng apprehend him and is troubled by regular visions of him.
Grainier also witnesses another colleague, William H Macy's explosives expert Am Peebles die in tragic circumstances.
When he is not risking his life logging and building railway tracks, Robert enjoys time with his family and hatching a plan with Gladys to build a lumber mill and set up their own business.
Tragedy strikes when a wildfire sweeps through Bonners Ferry, plunging Robert into grief and causing him to question whether it is as a result of bad karma from the murder of Fu Sheng.
Bentley and his fellow screenwriter Greg Kwedar, who previously collaborated on the latter's wonderful 2023 American prison arts drama 'Sing Sing,' once again deliver a beautifully crafted tale of love, loss and life that never strikes a false note.
Stunningly shot by cinematographer Aldolpho Veloso, it's a sombre, meditative movie in the mould of Terrence Malick.
The movie revels in the beauty of its Idaho landscapes but it also contrasts it with the savagery of the people who inhabit it.
Edgerton is wonderfully soulful as Robert Grainier - engaging audience sympathies with a haunting performance that never seems false.
Jones is perfect as the love of his life, while Macy turns in another delightful performance as a quirky work colleague.
Kerry Condon pops up as a forestry official Claire Thompson who befriends Robert later in life and there is an eye catching performance by Nathaniel Arcand as Ignatius Jack, a shopkeeper from a Native American background who also strikes a chord with him.
The sporadic violence and ugly prejudice in Bentley's film are intended to resonate to this day, with images of immigrants being rounded up and snatched by gangs reminiscent of what audiences have witnessed on social media feeds and TV news bulletins with ICE.
The director and his fellow screenwriter remind us these forces have always lurked beneath the surface of the United States and they leave deep psychological scars just like they do on Grainier.
'Train Dreams' is one of those movies that's hard to shake off once you have seen it.
A lot of that is down to the quality of Bentley and Kwedar's writing, Edgerton's Golden Globe nominated performance and the stunning dusk and dawn images captured by Veloso.
In the absence of being able to see it in a cinema, try to watch it on the largest TV screen possible with the sound cranked up.
Choose this over watching it on a smartphone or a tablet.
Better still, project it on a screen or a wall with a sound bar because this is a film that deserves the biggest canvas available.
('Train Dreams' received its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2025 and was made available for streaming on Netflix in the UK and Ireland and other territories on November 21, 2025)
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