The Girl On the Train

The Girl On the Train

Starring Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux

Directed by Tate Taylor

The Story:
Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt) is an alcoholic woman who rides the train to New York every day, despite not having a job.  She's wallowing in self-pity over losing her husband Tom (Justin Theroux) and not being able to have children.  As she rides the train, she fantasizes about the perfect lives of people in the homes she passes by, especially a young pretty woman who lives in a house a few houses down from where she used to live.

Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett) is that woman, an artist and wannabe free spirit who's married to Scott (Luke Evans).  She struggles with maintaining a suburban wife life while still yearning to live the carefree days of her youth - and she absolutely hates children.  Which makes it ironic that she's a babysitter for Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), who is now married to Rachel's ex Tom.  She wants to experience fun and excitement, and gets it through her therapist Kamal Abdic (Edgar Ramirez).

Anna is a stay-at-home mom who also requires a nanny for some reason, and she is the doting wife to Tom, and lives in constant fear of Rachel.  Seemingly, Rachel hasn't gotten over the divorce and she calls them numerous times a day, and even ends up on their doorstep a couple times. 

When Megan goes missing, Rachel is a prime suspect because she saw her the night she disappeared, but can't remember what happened due to being blackout drunk.  As she struggles to regain her memories, she grows closer to Scott and begins to doubt her own sanity.

The Synopsis:
Paula Hawkins' novel is the fastest selling adult novel in history, so it's no surprise it was adapted for the screen, especially after the surprising success of "Gone Girl" a few years earlier.  Obviously, I've never read the book, so I didn't know fully what I was going into, or how things were changed from novel to screen.  Apparently, there was a lot of differences that, as usual, makes the novel a lot better than the film it's adapted from.

The novel goes into depth in the stories of the three women, offering more of their flaws, insecurities, and inconsistencies.  Granted, that can't be fully expressed on the screen in a two-hour movie, but there could've been more details given than just the flatline basics: Rachel is a sad drunk who wants a man.  Megan is a married woman who wants adventure.  Anna is a mother who also longs to be the other woman again.  In the novel, the author supports the women and make them strong, independent females who don't need men to validate their existence, but that seems to have been scrapped for the film, as they all find their identities in the men they're with - or used to be with.

The mystery of the film unravels like a mix of "Columbo" and "Scooby Doo" so much so I was waiting for Velma to come out at the end and yell "Jinkies!" and the gang peeling off the mask to reveal the real culprit.  It's such a simple conclusion that most people could pin it down halfway through, making this move nothing more than an elongated Lifetime TV movie.

Thankfully, the film had a great cast, which made the film at least sufferable to sit through.  Emily Blunt gives us a very flawed, fractured, sad Rachel that we feel sorry for, but also wonder if she really is a little insane.  Haley Bennett (a dead ringer for Jennifer Lawrence) shines as the free-spirited Megan who harbors deep dark secrets.  Rebecca Ferguson (totally unaware it was her, she looks completely different than when she was in "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation") is your traditional suburban mother who really doesn't offer anything else.  Justin Theroux and Luke Evans do alright with their roles as well, but they're not that memorable.  The real shock is Allison Janney's portrayal as tough-as-nails detective Riley, a character vastly different from her normal comedic roles.  She knocked it out of the park and I really wish she would do some more serious roles in the future.

Back to the story.  As I said, it's a very simple tale where you can already predict the outcome, but at least Emily Blunt makes it somewhat interesting.  Although, comparing it to "Gone Girl" (as it comes as no surprise, since the two have pretty much the same concept: death and love in picturesque suburban America), there's no real big scenes that stand out - unlike the one scene in "Gone Girl" where a character goes all Elizabeth Bathory. 

Then there was the time jumps.  It goes from current time to six months ago to two years ago to thirty years in the future to two hundred years in the past and a million winters from now.  You'd expect those time jumps to focus on the moment and stay there until the next placard tells us its modern day again, but it doesn't, and you get even more confused.  I'm a big fan of telling a story in a non-linear format, but it needs to be done right, otherwise it just doesn't make sense.

Then again, I'm not the target audience for such a film, so maybe I'm just missing something.  I did appreciate the underlying theme of "things aren't as good as they appear."  We often hear about this when we compare our lives to others we see through social media such as Facebook, and we yearn to be that person.  However, we're just given the window shop display of their lives, and are not privy to the darkness behind.  Such is with "Girl on the Train," where Rachel becomes insanely jealous of both Megan and Anna, because she only sees the highlights of their lives, when in reality all three girls are very damaged and fractured. 

The Summary:
Basically just an extended Lifetime movie, "The Girl on the Train" would've been totally insufferable to watch if it were not for Emily Blunt's natural acting ability.

The Score: B