Train Dreams: Book vs. Movie
Clint Bentley's 2025 film Train Dreams adapts Denis Johnson's novella. Joel Edgerton plays Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker whose family life unfolds amid the changing forests of the Pacific Northwest.
About the book and the movie
- Author
- Denis Johnson
- Year
- 2011
- Pages
- 128Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 2 hr 22 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Will Patton
Robert Grainier earns his living building railroads and cutting timber in the American West of the early twentieth century. Work takes him away from the home he makes with his wife and daughter, and a devastating loss draws him into years of solitude. This novella follows his memories, strange encounters and changing surroundings as the country develops around him.
- Director
- Clint Bentley
- Writer
- Denis Johnson, Greg Kwedar
- Year
- 2025
- Runtime
- 1 hr 42 min
- Cast
- Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Kerry Condon, William H. Macy
- Genre
- Drama, period drama
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
A cabin shared with Gladys and their daughter gives railroad worker Robert Grainier a home between seasons of dangerous labor. Around them, logging crews and expanding railways reshape the Pacific Northwest, bringing encounters that stay with Robert long after the men move on. A devastating loss leaves him to negotiate the distance between that family life and the world continuing around him.
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