The Girl on the Train
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or for home viewing, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
March 23, 2017 – The Girl on the Train
I heard this film was really bad, but based on a great book. I have to admit, it’s not much that will stay with me, but there were enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. But from those I know who’ve read the book, I was supposed to be more galvanized by the dark and desperate life of Rachel Watson.
Emily Blunt plays Rachel, in another excellent performance from one of our finer lead actresses, but the story isn’t just about the girl on the train, but also equally about Megan (Haley Bennett) and Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). Rachel follows the exploits of Megan closely, watching her from the train, engaged in romantic trysts and begins to sleuth her way to finding out where Megan eventually goes missing to. Anna is the new wife of Tom, Rachel’s ex. And Rachel, in a perpetual drunken stupor, is often making them (and everyone) uncomfortable. It’s a dense story, as are ones adapted from books, but perhaps too dense. After a while, the story pile-on seems to overwhelm all the characters, never giving them a chance to breathe (certainly never allowing them to portray anything other than “gloomy”).
Some other quick performance notes, Haley Bennett came on to the scene in hilarious fashion in 2007’s Music and Lyrics and it’s great to see she’s stuck around, but upped her profile. She’s good here, she was good in The Magnificent Seven and even Hardcore Henry, making a breakout year for her. Luke Evans is does a fine job, too, with one of the more hard-to-figure-out people in the story.
It’s another “Hey, the suburbs are crazy” story, which I thought wasn’t as new as everyone seemed to think when it was put forth in 1999 in American Beauty. The unlikeable characters needed Frances Ha-esque dialogue if they were going to be more tolerable.
Directed by: Tate Taylor
Release Date: October 7, 2016
Run Time: 112 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: R
Distributor: DreamWorks
