Review of The Girl on the Train (2016) by Patrick L — 29 Jan 2017

"This "Girl" thriller is on a train to nowhere".

Movie Review: The Girl on the Train.

Date Viewed: October 15 2016.

Directed By Tate Taylor (The Help and Get on Up).

Screenplay By Erin Cressida Wilson, Based on the novel by Paula Hawkins.

Starring: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Allison Janney, Justin Theroux, Rebecca Ferguson, Luke Evans, Edgar Ramirez, Lisa Kudrow and Laura Prepon.

This "Girl" thriller is on a train to nowhere. "The Girl on the Train" is a fall Oscar-bait release that intends to lure in most of the "Gone Girl" fanbase but director Tate Taylor is no David Fincher I'm afraid. It is a sluggish dramatic thriller that has zero thrills and the plot twists presented here are weirdly baffling. Emily Blunt does give a strong performance as a depressive alcoholic who spends her days riding on a commuting train where she looks by at her ex-husband's neighbors and becomes intrigued by their perfect lives but the movie falls apart thanks to a lifeless script and senseless direction from Taylor who previously made two strong uplifting movies, "The Help" and the raw James Brown biopic "Get on Up".

Based on Paula Hawkins' bestselling novel, Blunt plays Rachel Watson, a divorced woman who spends her days feeling depressed, riding on a commute train and often stalking her ex-husband, Tom Watson (Justin Theroux), his real estate agent wife, Anna Boyd (Rebecca Ferguson, from "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation") and their newborn daughter. Rachel's marriage to Tom ended after she caught him having an affair with Anna but during their marriage, Rachel often engaged herself in alcohol-induced blackouts and ensighted in self-destructive behavior.

During her train rides, she becomes intrigued by Tom's neighbors, a young couple named Scott (Luke Evans) and Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett). They seem to have the perfect marriage and surreal good houselife which Rachel really wants to have but right now she shares an apartment with her friend Cathy (Laura Prepon). As she continues to examine Tom's neighbors, Rachel discovers that Scott is very aggressive and controlling to Megan, that's because she may have been unfaithful to her man. Why is that so? Megan may have scored a new fling with her psychiatrist, Dr. Kamal Abdic (Edgar Ramirez).

After she sees Megan kissing Dr. Abdic on her balcony, Rachel tries to confront her but since she's still on a drinking binge she blacks out and falls down. Several hours later, an injured Rachel wakes up in her apartment and she finds out that Megan is missing. She is later questioned by Detective Riley (Allison Janney) about Megan's disappearance but Rachel doesn't know where she is. Hoping to figure out her disappearance on her own, Rachel pretends to be a friend of Megan's just so she can have a chat with Scott about Megan's affair with the psychiatrist. As she starts to believe that Abdic is behind Megan's disappearance, Rachel begins an appointment with him where they make a trip back memory lane in her marriage to Tom. There were many incidents in Rachel and Tom's marriage, especially one involving Rachel lashing out at her husband's boss's wife (Lisa Kudrow) which resulted in Tom getting canned.

When investigators find Megan's body they learn that she was pregnant but the baby wasn't Scott's or Abdic's so who is the father? Will Rachel find out for herself or will Maury Povich solve this mystery instead? "The Girl on the Train" looks great and it has a nice setting but not every best-selling thriller can be turned into a good movie. Whereas with "Gone Girl", we understood why Rosamund Pike chose be to gone but in "The Girl on the Train", the mystery presented to us is just a blank and we never understand why she takes these train rides even though we get why she's depressed. Maybe the movie would've been more compelling and understandable if the author herself Paula Hawkins wrote it instead but sadly screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary, Chloe and Men, Women & Children) fails to connect the dots.

The performers do their best with the bleak material but only Emily Blunt carries this movie through it's rough patches. While it isn't a total trainwreck, the only road "The Girl on the Train" is taking is the letdown road because it's a straight-up letdown.