‘The Girl on the Train’ follows Rachel (Emily Blunt), an ex-PR magnate who has descended into alcoholism after the breakdown of her marriage to Tom (Justin Theroux) due to his affair with real estate agent Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). She rides the train into the city each morning for ‘work’ (hence the creative title) and observes the lives of those in the suburbia that she so craves, all the while downing vodka in a clear drink bottle. She focuses on one couple in particular, Megan (Haley Bennett) and Scott (Luke Evans), whose seemingly perfect existence she lives vicariously through. Rachel flies into a fit of confused rage after witnessing Megan kissing a man who isn’t her husband, gets insanely drunk and decides to pursue Megan – only for Megan to disappear in suspicious circumstances that night. Rachel can’t remember a thing about the night’s events, and so begins the insanely convoluted plot of this film – based on the bestselling novel by Paula Hawkins.
This wasn’t quite as bad as what the critics are saying, but it definitely had issues. The graphic nature of the violence was fairly difficult to watch, and I didn’t find the atmosphere all that enjoyable. The overall plot, however, was compelling and it was effective in capturing and maintaining audience attention. The whodunnit nature of the mystery took interesting turns, and culminated in a satisfying plot twist that had just a fair amount of surprise – but was hinted at in a fairly heavy-handed way throughout the feature. I also had issues with the decision to tell the beginning of the story from three perspectives, and then completely abandon this later, as it diminshed some of the film’s mystery and wasn’t reflective of the outsider aspect of Rachel’s character. This format may have worked for the original book, but it didnt translate to film and it would have been better to keep the audience in the same state of ignorance as Rachel – not this weird, uncommitted limbo that we were stuck in.
The characters in the film were relatively stereotypical archetypes. This affected the believability of the movie, as either the characters’ actions were too dull or the twists were completely nonsensical in terms of the personalities featured. Perhaps if the acting, specifically with regards to Theroux, had been slightly more inspired or complex it might have worked out. This is, of course, with the exception of Emily Blunt. She made us empathise with Rachel despite her ill-judged behaviour and unbelievable plot arcs, and completely elevated the quality of this film.
All in all, ‘The Girl on the Train’ was an interesting murder mystery that offered a social commentary on suburbia extending beyond the, dare I say, overdone plot. Blunt shone above the mediocre dialogue and direction, and I’ll give it 3 out of 5 popcorns.
(Photo courtesy of IMDb)
Girl with the Popcorn 