An American drama film, hailed by fans as a “masterpiece” that will “leave a lasting impact,” is now streaming in the UK. Train Dreams (2025) tells the life story of Robert Grainier (played by Joel Edgerton), a working man who grew up as an orphan in Idaho and lives a hard life as a railroad worker and logger in the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Over the course of the film, we follow the twists and turns in his life, which the Netflix synopsis calls one of “unexpected depth and beauty in the rapidly-changing America of the early 20th Century”. The ensemble cast includes William H Macy, Oscar nominee Felicity Jones and Kerry Condon. It was directed by Clint Bentley and was based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella of the same name.

Train Dreams was released in select US cinemas on November 7, before arriving on Netflix last Friday (November 21).

Fans rushed to Rotten Tomatoes to shower the film with praise, with one calling it “one of the best movies I’ve watched in recent years. It transports you to a different time, with a top-notch performance by Edgerton.”

Another wrote: “Wow….Not sure how to review this masterpiece other than to tell you … experience this film!”

A third added: “This is one of the saddest movies I have ever watched, although so beautifully made. This movie will grip you & leave a lasting impact, rarely does a movie do that these days. Highly recommend but don’t forget the tissue box!”

Some viewers took issue with its pacing, with one describing it as like an epic survival film, The Revenant, but “without the story”.

“Plodding and bleak, and fails in what it’s trying to say,” the Audience Reviewer added.

But others defended its narrative style, one of whom said the “comments about it being slow/boring/thin plot seem to misunderstand this comes from a novella and is intended to be less a fully fleshed out movie than a briefer and simpler (but deeply complex) contemplation on life, nature and relationships”.

“Just saw this in the theatre with a Q&A with some of the production team after,” they added. “The way this was made and the attention to detail, just amazing. And filmed in northern Idaho/eastern Washington. See it!”

Film review blog Creative Cinematic Collection said it’s “remarkable that the film runs under two hours, given how full and lived-in it feels”.

The reviewer said: “I only wish I’d been able to experience it in a theatre—Train Dreams seems like the kind of film that would have been truly stunning on the big screen.”

Train Dreams is streaming now on Netflix.