Train Dreams

I ended up watching two of the ten films nominated for Best Picture at home this year.  I watched Bugonia at home, and wished that I had a smaller screen to watch it on (can you watch movies on an Apple Watch?), and I also watched Train Dreams at home, and wished that I could have seen it on the big screen.  Train Dreams is what I think a Terrence Malick film would be like, if I had the attention span to watch a Terrence Malick film.  This film is not so much about what happens or why; rather, it's how it feels, it's the experience of being there with the main character, and whether something is real or is a dream, doesn't really matter.  This is the film's strength, since it has such a rich and beautiful visual presentation.  This could also be considered the film's weakness, it's natural to want answers, and closure, neither of which this film is willing to provide.  I liked that the director, Clint Bentley, shows us beauty, lingers on the loving relationship between husband and wife, shares the goodness of a father teaching his child, and explores the complicated nature of friendship between men.  What I didn't like was the hopeless sadness that followed the loss of everything good, and that there was no relief from the emptiness.  It's good to finish a film like Train Dreams, turn off the television, and look around at all the things that God has given us that give hope, even when we encounter times of loss and sadness.