The Girl On The Train

Year: 2016
Director: Tate Taylor
Cast: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans, Edgar Ramirez, Allison Janney


Plot: A woman obsessed with another woman she sees as she rides the train every morning gets carried away and suddenly is implicated in the latter's murder.


Review: The Girl On The Train is based on the worldwide bestseller, though I reckon now that the story works better on paper than on film.

Rachel is a divorcee, an alcoholic who is unable to let go of her past life, which is being happily married to Tom, who is now married to Anna. They have a child together, which infuriates Rachel even more. She rides the train to New York every day and sees a house two doors away from her former house, where Megan lives. She doesn't even know Megan, but after seeing Megan kiss a man whom Rachel knows isn't Megan's husband, she is compelled to do something about it. Then when Megan winds up missing, Rachel becomes a prime suspect since she was in the area at the time and worst of all she can't remember what she did due to her alcoholism. So who killed Megan?

The Girl On The Train is basically a whodunit, and like I said, it probably worked better on paper. In Tate Taylor's hands, it ends up being rather talky and lacking in suspense. Erin Cressida Wilson's script focuses on the three women, mostly Rachel, and how they relate to one another, and though it gives them plenty of depth, Taylor fails to give the material any kind of edge. The several flashbacks occurring throughout the film didn't help matters either. By the time the perpetrator is revealed, we've almost lost interest, and the climax was almost non-existent too.

Of the cast, Emily Blunt is awesome as Rachel, being very convincing as an alcoholic suffering from severe emotional trauma. Haley Bennett and Rebecca Ferguson are both solid as Megan and Anna respectively, but they don't hold a candle to Blunt. The female driven film leaves the male cast somewhat underused, but Justin Theroux, Luke Evans and Edgar Ramirez do their best with the material. Evans at the very least is quite intense. Allison Janney lends some good support as a detective investigating Megan's death.

Overall, The Girl On The Train falls short of expectations. If not for Blunt's superb performance, this would be a total dud. (6/10)