The Girl On The Train is a film based on a novel by the same name from Paula Hawkins. This film stars Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans and Edgar Ramírez. It comes directed by Tate Taylor who some may know as the director of The Help (2011). The Girl On The Train is film in the thriller genre and is about the mystery of what happened to some woman who is murdered, who could’ve done it?
I spent some time earlier this year reading The Girl On The Train after I saw a few trailers for the film. However I never finished reading the book as it wasn’t really my thing. It’s a lot of small sections of stories and characters and I didn’t really know what was going on, that combined with being busy, I just never really got it. When watching the movie and having read about a quarter of the book, I have to say things are quite close to how I remember them to be. The story in the film jumps around a lot of for the most part, in the beginning I was completely lost.
But somewhere around the middle of the film, I started to really understand what was going on. No longer was I lost and I became very interested in the story of Rachel and what was going to happen to her. Rachel’s life is sort of a mess really and the story jumps around I think a lot because it reflects the state of her character and how she is. When I thought about it like that, actually I really liked this movie. Before that, I wasn’t so sure about that, I was just as lost as I was when I read the book. But coming out of it, I had it all figured out and left the cinema thinking about what I saw that day for at least a few hours and I love when that happens with films that I watch.
The acting in this film is decent. I really liked the performances from Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson and Haley Bennett, they were all great and so too was Luke Evans. But it wasn’t all great, I didn’t really like what we got from Allison Janney who plays the detective and I didn’t at all enjoy watching Laura Prepon who plays Cathy the roommate. I’m not sure if they were just unlikable characters or what, but I’m glad they weren’t in the film much, there were also quite a few other actors that for some reason I didn’t enjoy, I’m not sure why. I mean Luke Evans’ character is horrible, but he was still pretty good! If it wasn’t for quite a few unlikable actors and characters, possibly I would have scored this slightly higher.
The directing is not bad from Tate Taylor. From what I read of the book, I do think that this was a very difficult one to make into a film. Even watching it, I feel it’s a bit a confusing mess that will probably lose a lot of people who don’t have an attention span. But if you stick with the film, as I did, there’s a lot to it. The thriller aspect is there, especially towards the end and it’s interesting to see how everything turns out. But I did feel after watching it, that it was a satisfying film experience.
Overall I enjoyed my time with The Girl On The Train quite a lot, a bit more than I thought I would actually. It’s a bit of a mixed experience though, some actors like Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett and Luke Evans were great, but others were a bit of a let down. The beginning of the film and even possibly in the middle section is a bit hard to understand. I can see many people being lost with this one and possibly some frustrated ones who didn’t figure it out. But if you do stick with this and give it a chance, it is interesting. The thriller component is high in this one towards the end and the story left me with a lot to think about and discuss. While the film is not perfect and has a few flaws, it’s still a decent watch at the cinema.
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