The Girl on the Train (*1/2)
By Jon Waterman
Summary – Every day Rachel Watson takes the train to and from work, and every day she sees a beautiful house with a beautiful couple and dreams of a life she wishes she had. One day, she sees the woman cheating on what she imagines to be a perfect life and it throws her into a tailspin. She wakes up from another blackout drunk night in a strange place with unexplained marks, only to find out that that woman she spied on is now missing. Could she have anything to do with that? Maybe she needs to get closer to the situation to find out.
Girl Meets Girl – Just about anyone that’s seen both movies will draw an inevitable comparison to “Gone Girl,” so let’s just get that out of the way right now. This mystery about a missing (possibly dead) woman where the lead character also is the lead suspect is not as good. There are some twists and turns, but they’re not as fun or as surprising. There’s some suspense, but it’s about as thrilling as telling you to wait until the next paragraph of this review.
Straight as a Rail – There are also some characters with hidden secrets, but they aren’t as interesting as you may hope. I’ll try to keep this spoiler free, and instead will say that there’s no way to know the revelations in advance, but once you start to get a whiff, it’s telegraphed and drawn out too much before the official reveal of what we now already all know.
Girl Equals Girl – We get to know Megan, the missing girl, well through the movie’s exploration and flashbacks and she’s probably the most interesting person in the movie. Rachel is flawed by her rampant alcoholism and inability to control herself generally. That essentially defines her character, which is a shame. Too many of the people we encounter are two-dimensional and I can only assume that’s not the case in the best-selling novel this was based on.
Biggest Standout – The acting is quite solid. I wish they had a bit more to work with, but without the high quality performances I would have completely lost interest.
Biggest Disappointment – I think I’ve said this before, but I absolutely hate fake slow motion. Using editing software to create slow motion looks awkward and disgusting and like poor planning by the filmmaker. And it’s used all the time.
Is It Worth Watching Again? – I can’t imagine why it would be. There are better suspense/mystery movies out there and I have a strong feeling you’d be better off reading or (re-reading) the book instead.
Rating: R
Year: 2016
Running Time: 112 min
Director: Tate Taylor
Writer: Erin Cressida Wilson
Starring: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson
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