Review of The Girl on the Train (2016) by Spangle — 07 Oct 2016

The Girl on the Train is an alright mystery thriller that feels as if it fully embraces its mediocrity by never attempting to make itself better, but makes little-to-no argument about being worse than average. Starring Emily Blunt as Rachel Watson, a divorced drunk woman who travels the train daily to keep busy, The Girl on the Train is a film with strong acting and an occasionally engaging plot, but far too much filler, lazy writing, a predictable ending, a dreary atmosphere, and is tonally awkward.

As it stands, it is a mildly engaging mystery, but feels far too cold and dreary to be anything spectacular. The darkness overwhelms the overall picture by shrouding it in this dark cloud. Much of this is lent to the film through Rachel's depression over losing her husband, Tom (Justin Theroux) to another woman, Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). The rest of this tone is lent through her depression over being a hopeless drunk who remembers nothing. While I have no problem with dark films, this one is just so overwhelmingly dark throughout, only to then wind up being tonally awkward at the end. When it is revealed that Tom is our killer, the film goes full-on cheese in the way he is killed by Rachel with Anna rubbing the salt in the wound. The entire film is dead serious only then to have a kill on the level of a campy and cheesy horror flick. In a theater full of old couples that murmured nervously when the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's new film Split played, the audience in my showing LAUGHED. They laughed at the killing of this guy. He is an **** a murderer, an abuser, and an adulterer, but the killing and the spitting on the grave was so over-the-top, the audience found this moment hilarious. For a film that is so serious, having a laughable climax does not work.

What is worse is that there are few clues, if any, to Tom being the killer. It becomes predictable about half way through when it dawns on you that the three woman - Rachel, Anna, and Megan (Haley Bennett) - are our protagonists. The man who connects them all, Tom, is already known to be a cheater. In this world where all men are evil and violent (see: Scott Hipwell (Luke Evans) also being obsessive and abusive) and out to kill women, it becomes clear that this is a story with an ulterior motive. For many, this is Gone Girl redux. Yet, Gone Girl was decidedly not in favor of Rosamund Pike's character. The Girl on the Train keeps trying to make its female leads sympathetic to the audience and ultimately succeeds, which is why they deserved better than this nonsensical ending.

The filler and lazy writing certainly go hand-in-hand, namely through on-the-nose writing (Anna saying she misses being the "other woman", boy do I have good news for you!) and throw away lines (Megan saying she heard that a train would rip your clothes off randomly, maybe a red herring or maybe just a line Tate Taylor liked from the book and decided to use....going to say the latter). Even worse, the film's idea of introducing us to its characters is a short scene followed by their name coming up on the screen. They could not even mention their name to introduce them, instead they just decide to tell you. The filler comes through largely through Megan. I swear Haley Bennett was exclusively naked in this film. Beautiful girl for sure, but damn...can you have a scene where either Justin Theroux or Luke Evans does not have sex with you? Edgar Ramirez resists the temptation, but only through sheer will as Bennett sucks his finger. For a film asking us to sympathize with her, it really should have not made her so adulterous. Scott Hipwell may be a jerk, but jeez...the entire film is just her cheating. The reveal of her dead child was done well, but does feel incredibly extraneous to the overall story. Good emotion and good acting from Bennett, but the film never really justifies its inclusion.

The plotting of The Girl on the Train is incredibly engaging, however. This is occurred largely through Blunt and good writing in this area. Her blackouts, the abuse reveal about Tom, and her general confusion are all handled well. The writing is spotty, but does very well in this area to develop Rachel and her past, which is a major win. Though it felt out-of-place, the development of Megan is also incredible. While there could be less sex scenes, the writers do a good job to develop her and explain why she is who she is to the audience. Still does not justify the cheating, but all the same, good job. The problems with the plotting is that its red herrings are obvious. Moments feel extra, such as confronting the guy she sees on the train who "follows" her one day. From the moment we first see this encounter, it is clear that this scene is a trick to make us assume this random guy is a killer. Instead, he is anything but, which could have been guessed by anybody.