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The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train: Incoherent Soap Opera of a Thriller

  • Emily BluntHaley Bennett...
  • Mystery & Suspense
  • Tate Taylor
reviewed by
Marija Loncarevic
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The Girl on the Train: Incoherent Soap Opera of a Thriller

Adapted from Paula Hawkins’ hit debut novel of the same name, The Girl on the Train doesn’t translate all that well on the big screen. The story – a complex web of violence and betrayal – falls flat thanks to a flimsy, lifeless script that lacks the character of the original source material.

The story is centred on Rachel (Blunt); a depressed, alcoholic divorcee, who spends her days riding the train to New York to a job she no longer has. The train, which she boards twice a day, also passes by her old home; a place she once shared with her ex-husband, Tim (Theroux), who has recently become a father with his new wife, Anna (Fergusson). Saddened by the life she once led and lost, Rachel likes to spend her time on the train imagining how the others live, and becomes infatuated with what she believes to be the perfect romance between her ex-husband’s neighbours, Scott Hipwell (Evans) and wife Megan (Bennett).

Drawn in by their seemingly blissful relationship, Megan soon becomes obsessed with the couple and starts spying on them for a few seconds each day. However, when she witnesses Megan in the arms of another man, Rachel decides to take matters into her own hands, only to find herself waking up the next day bloodied and bruised with no recollection of what happened the night before – and with Megan missing.

Drawing comparisons to David Fincher’s Gone Girl – minus the intelligent script and the gripping suspense – the story’s biggest problem lies with the screenplay which comes across as unfocused. Neglecting to fully-realise and flesh-out its characters, audiences – especially those who haven’t read the book – will struggle to connect to the people on the screen, who are either dull or helplessly cartoonish. Using one too many flashbacks, the back-and-forth jumps don’t do much for the story’s cohesiveness, while the choppy pacing doesn’t help either.

Despite the efforts of Blunt, who works hard to keep her character compelling, what was considered by many as a literary phenomenon, has translated into a bland and a by-the-books thriller which not only fails to capture the essence of the novel, but disappoints on all other fronts as well.

Like This? Try

Gone Girl (2014), Before I Go to Sleep (2014), The Forgotten (2004)

360 Tip

The likes of Margot Robbie and Kate Mara were considered for the role of Megan Hipwell before Hayley Bennett was eventually cast.  

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