In scouting for \u201cTrain Dreams,\u201d Bentley, 40, found it harder than ever to find the old growth forests of the book. If \u201cTrain Dreams\u201d is about unearthing a forever-lost American past, locating it for the film was fittingly elusive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were looking for locations, it proved the point of the film,\u201d Bentley says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to find those old trees. There are protected areas you can get to. We drove three hours north from Spokane, up to this grove of old trees by the Canadian border. You get there after a hike and it\u2019s not that big of a stand of old trees. It\u2019s the few they couldn\u2019t get to.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cTrain Dreams,\u201d meditative and radiant, seeks to evoke an ever-changing land upon which Grainier anonymously labors. This is a time of seemingly slower pace but one constantly in flux, with forests being cleared, railroads being laid and lives being sacrificed along the way.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing that\u2019s beautiful about the book is that it feels like an elegy for a lost time. That\u2019s what I wanted the movie to feel like,\u201d says Bentley. \u201cAnd I think a big part of that is we look around and we see, \u2018Oh, that was a forest, and now there\u2019s a Costco there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Bentley\u2019s film, currently playing in theaters before streaming Nov. 21 on Netflix, is resonating with audiences in part because of how deeply un-Hollywood it is. Grainier, played by Joel Edgerton in the film, doesn\u2019t talk much. He isn\u2019t leading a heroic or even particularly notable life. It\u2019s more that life is happening to him.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat hooked me was about the significance of what we would otherwise presume of an insignificant life,\u201d Edgerton says. \u201cWe go to the cinema to watch what we hope for ourselves, that we would be more active and in control and heroic. But I think the majority of us share similarities to Robert in that we don\u2019t presume to have full control of things in the world, and we absorb the blows of the world. We\u2019re not the controllers of our universe.\u201d<\/p>\n Adapting a cherished favorite of 21st century literature<\/p>\n When \u201cTrain Dreams,\u201d which first debuted at the Sundance Film Festival<\/a>, was premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, Edgerton, Bentley and Greg Kwedar, the co-screenwriter, gathered to discuss a movie that tends to inspire soulful rumination. Bentley and Kwedar, the writing-producer partners behind 2024\u2019s \u201cSing Sing\u201d<\/a> and 2021\u2019s \u201cJockey,\u201d have shown a rare knack for crafting textured American stories.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to build our stories from the dirt up,\u201d says Kwedar, 41.<\/p>\n Bentley and Kwedar write together but take turns directing. Their script to \u201cSing Sing,\u201d the acclaimed real-life inspired prison drama populated by formerly incarcerated men<\/a>, was Oscar nominated. (Clarence Maclin and John \u201cDivine G\u201d Whitfield were also credited as writers.)<\/p>\n Yet little about Johnson\u2019s novella, first published in a 2002 issue of The Paris Review, screams movie adaptation. It\u2019s harsh and unsentimental. Grainier experiences tragedy. His life is mostly hard and remains a mystery to him. But it contains small joys and moments of epiphany.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n