The Girl on the Train REVIEW
All aboard the thriller train. Toot toot! Let’s shimmy over the pond to New York for the new story setting and see how this worldwide best seller does on screen.
Shuttling out the tunnel of a disappointing summer of movies is this bleak film with a harsh microscope on human flaws. It isn’t a hugely predictable turn we witness but then it’s not much of a surprise either, leaving Emily Blunt to be the biggest saving grace in quite a tepid thriller.
Frequent train passenger Rachel Watson (Blunt) spends her travelling time peering into the lives of people along the rail-lines. She becomes fixated on the world of Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett), whom she follows one day. The next day she wakes up and Megan has gone missing, leaving Rachel to try and figure out the truth whilst coping with her own problems.
Tate Taylor as captain of the train does ensure there’s a degree of captivation in this feature, the tone of the movie is dialled down to a greyish spectrum and along the way there’s a clear burrowing sense of danger which is great. Also the little moments where time seems to slow, people shudder just a smidge as the frame blurs and zooms are neat aspects that don’t just tie in with Rachel’s addiction but also build that level of unease and question of trust.
Author Paula Hawkins, might be getting tired of the comparisons to ‘Gone Girl’ but when the marketing team releases a trailer that looks very much like the Fincher release, then audiences/fans of that will relate the two. It can’t be helped and it’s no errorĀ relating the two as they both deal with dramatic relationships and the harsh nastiness people can hide within themselves. They also both harbour a mystery and twist narrative, perhaps this is where Hawkins’ plot falls down in contrast. Though the film tries taking us down tracks of surprise, it isn’t a massive twist that we get and overall the ending section of the movie becomes a lacklustre affair with scorn driving the way.
I doubt Hawkins is to blame, in translation I can imagine her novel lost impact and dramatic build up to the reveal. The movie seems to drip-feed more hints and though I didn’t guess the figure to blame, I wasn’t exactly stunned either. It’s the focus on Rachel and her problems that is the strongest story-telling quality. Just the way she tries struggling through existence and as we learn more about her, the routine she takes and her past, it’s these signs that keep the movie interesting. I do wish we’d learnt a little more about Megan though because tiny hints to her family, background and past do little to flesh out her character.
Emily Blunt is by the far the best thing in this film, she utterly buries herself under the skin of Rachel and she looks like a shattered, damaged being. Depending on the following months of movies, I can see and also hope that Blunt is up for an Oscar, because she brings the tears, strength, broken self-belief and is a wonder to watch. Haley Bennett gets an interesting role also, trying to sink her teeth into a woman that’s trying to find something she doesn’t know what whilst being a temptress, mistress and wife. Justin Theroux gets more screen time than Luke Evans, but both men like Edgar Ramirez are nothing more than mysterious possibly bad guys who flit in between the lives of Rachel and Megan.
I was hoping the film would be more intense, or at least more of a bubbling pot of tension, instead it simmers slightly and only heats up thanks to Blunt and her incredible performance. The themes of addiction, abuse and depression don’t feel like the smart traits they should be, but mind this gap and sit down for an occasionally bumpy ride that has enough of the thriller genre to keep you seated.
6/10 or…
I love all things Tarantino and have a soft spot for sombre and clever films. Writing is what I love doing, be it screenplays or reviews, I hope someday my procrastination will dwindle and I'll finish something!
