PHOTO COURTESY BBP TRAIN DREAMS LLC / NETFLIX

The early 20th century, at least in the popular imagination, is an odd bridge of eras. A baby born on a farm in 1899 would’ve been much more likely to ride a horse than drive a car — yet that same baby would have a pretty good shot of living long enough to see the moon landing. In the west, the trappings of frontier life remained; in the east, traders worked on Wall Street by day and saw Broadway shows by night.

Robert (Joel Edgerton), the protagonist of the excellent drama “Train Dreams,” is adrift between those eras, working on railroads and in logging camps in the Pacific Northwest. He’s got a young family — a beloved wife, Gladys (Felicity Jones) and an infant child — and he works long stretches away from home to keep them warm and fed in a house he built by hand. His jobs speak of progress, uniting the country via rail and providing timber for endless expansion. Yet his mind worries more about the core elements — fire, water, earth — that must be tamed to ensure his family’s survival.

After witnessing the summary execution of a coworker, Robert finds himself haunted by the thin line that separates life and death, especially as misfortunes pile up. The drama in “Train Dreams” is not a struggle to avoid tragedy; at the risk of a slight spoiler, Robert is a man who will experience profound tragedy. The tension, then, is whether or not it will consume him.

The antidote to all that misery, at least for the viewer, is the visual majesty that suffuses every frame of the film. Director Clint Bentley and cinematographer Adolpho Veloso present rugged landscapes as enchanting labyrinths of flora — an endless expanse of trees that dwarf the human figures in the frame.

“Beautiful, ain’t it,” asks one ill-fated character. Robert asks what he’s referring to. “All of it,” is the reply. “Every bit of it.”

Bentley and Greg Kweder adapted the film from a novella by Denis Johnson. It’s light on story and heavy on narration, two factors that can be damaging to the enjoyment of a film. Those pitfalls are steadily avoided here; as the name indicates, it’s a film with the rhythm and feeling of a dream. Even when nothing is happening, the images are laden with unspeakable meaning.

In light of all its weight, it may be a surprise to find so much beauty in “all of it.” If you watch the film, though, you’ll understand — with melancholy and something like wisdom, you’ll understand.

My Rating: 10/10

“Train Dreams” is now streaming on Netflix.