Review of The Girl on the Train (2016) by Parleon — 10 Oct 2016

Non-Spoilers:

The Girl on The Train is a good movie. It's filled with suspense, drama, and mystery; and it features love, infidelity, loss, heartbreak, loneliness, depression, anxiety, alcoholism, mental unconsciousness, self-mental abuse, desire, sex, and murder. This movie will keep you guessing until the very end. If you want to enjoy a good movie about the human condition (which is acted out superbly by the way), then check out The Girl on The Train.

Spoilers:

Viewers should watch this movie more than once. I don't believe that one viewing will help an audience participant fully comprehend its true nature. I think that audience viewers will be anticipating something similar to Gone Girl, they want to experience a full mystery story, but what they get instead is a story about the mental condition.

Rachel can't get pregnant, and so she turns to the bottle. Tom (Rachel's ex-husband) is a complete as$hole. He cheats on his wife because she can't conceive. Tom mentally damages Rachel by lying to her about her blackout phases. She has visions about what happened to her during one of her moments, but they're all falsities created by Tom.

Megan is (in her own words) a whore. She likes to sleep around with different men. Does she enjoy having sex with multiple partners, maybe? Megan wants a change in her life. She doesn't want to be with her husband anymore. Scott (Megan's husband) is a control freak. He has sex with her when he pleases. He wants her to conceive, but he's convinced that she doesn't want children. Unbeknown to Scott, Megan has the past. She's haunted by memories of the day she lost her child. She loved her child, but one accident proved to be something fatal, and it forever changed her life.

Anna was Tom's flame while he was married to Rachel. Anna and Tom are currently together, but Anna suspects infidelity during their marriage. Why Anna decided to fu*k a married person is beyond me. Why did she knowingly marry a cheating as$hole? Anna and Tom currently have a baby together. Anna is afraid of Rachel because one day, the front door was unlocked, Rachel let herself in, and then she took the baby outside. Anna panicked trying to find her baby. Once Anna went outside, she found Rachel and the baby. Rachel wasn't harming the baby she was just holding it. Anna pleaded, "Put my baby down!" Rachel gently put the baby on the ground and then ran away. Unbeknown to Anna, Rachel was heavily intoxicated. She just wanted to hold the baby and feel what that love was like. Rachel knew that she would never be able to have children, and she just wanted to feel that love she knew would never be possible. Rachel wanted a loving husband, the baby, and the fairytale happy ending.

Megan decided to see a shrink. Dr. Kamal Abdic is trying to help Megan deal with her current situations. Megan (being who she is and knowing it) tries to engage in sexual activity with her therapist. At first glance, it may seem that he's sleeping with her, but that's truly not the case. All he wants to do is help her get through her (I don't give a fu*k) phase. In the end, the doctor helps her realize why she's doing what she's doing. Megan's guilt for the death of her child sent her on a downward spiral. She's coping with her guilt by sleeping around.

Rachel and Megan are completely fleshed out. I received the knowledge of their past, and that helped me understand their way of thinking.

I didn't know what the hell Anna was doing.

Tom's a complete mentally abusive as$hole. He sleeps around because he's tired of sleeping with the same woman consistently.

Scott is shallow.

Dr. Kamal Abdic just happens to be present.

Overall, The Girl on the Train may be overshadowed by its mystery plot, but its true nature lies within its character's mental conditioning. Some characters are not there while others are just present. I will say that this movie does suffer from an overly complicated plot structure. For Example, a character called "Man in the Suit" is overused during the first act. The only use for the character is to throw the audience off. The mystery of the movie is not that good. Two characters certainly flesh out the movie and turn it into more than what it is. The Girl on the Train is about mental conditioning. The things we go through in the past can sometimes shape our future. Never make assumptions about people. We never have a clue about other people until we receive the full story.