Directed by: Tate Taylor
Written by: Erin Cressida Wilson (screenplay) – based on the novel by Paula Hawkins
Cast: Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans
The Josh chop: I’ve always wanted to like Emily Blunt, but in most of the roles I’ve seen her in I felt like she was over acting or something. Things just felt off to me. Like the feeling you get when you know someone is acting scripted lines. For The Girl on the Train Blunt became her character, and I never felt like she was “trying too hard.” Before screening the film, I saw the ratings and they were pretty dismal. I’m not sure why, but my guess is that people didn’t understand the deeper emotional feeling in the film. Or perhaps it was because they weren’t following along closely enough to the timelines that at times seemed pretty confusing. Either way, this film deserves an A.
Rachel (Blunt) a divorced alcoholic rides the train into New York everyday seemingly on her way to work. While on the train she sits in her favorite spot in the 3rd car from the front, because it has the best view. Every day Rachel passes the homes on the block where she used to live. A home where she used to live. The train stops in the exact spot where she can see her old house and the neighbor’s house. Rachel dwells more on the neighbor’s house where she sees a romantic couple at every pass. The couple – Megan (Bennett) and Scott (Evans) seem to have the perfect marriage.
Every passing Rachel looks out the window longingly at this couple and imagines their names, what they do, and what their hobbies are. She fantasizes about the couple, because she sees them as the perfect love she never had. Sometimes when the train stops she can see into their home. Rachel sees them kissing or making love. At the stop where she watches, she tells herself not to but she does anyway. She glances over to her old home. She sees the woman her husband cheated on her with. She sees their baby. This breaks Rachel a little more every time. So Rachel drinks to dull the heartbreak.
This is where I think people get confused. The story then moves to the couple’s house – months earlier. Megan and Scott are in love. They make passionate love what seems like daily and life seems great for them. Come to find out, Megan isn’t quite what we thought she was from Rachel’s point of view. She describes herself as many things. Among other things she says she’s a wife, a runner, and a whore. Not necessarily in that order.
We hear these things from Megan, and you begin to see her character emerge. She’s had a rough difficult life as she tells her therapist. It’s not always easy being married to her husband. He wants a family and she doesn’t. She talks about how she lies to almost everyone and how closed off she is. She describes the feeling she has while at her current job. How she hates babysitting for the neighbor and how she runs home as fast as she can afterward to wash the smell off of her from holding the baby.
We then go to a different point in time (again, slightly confusing and hard to follow) where we see the life of Anna (Ferguson) and Tom (Theroux). Tom is Rachel’s ex husband. Anna is his new wife. They were together for months while Tom and Rachel were married. Now that they are divorced, Anna and Tom live in the home that used to be Rachel and Tom’s. We find that Megan is Anna’s babysitter and we begin to see how everyone becomes connected.
Rachel lives for the moments when the train stops in front of her old street. She loves to see Anna and Scott. She sometimes draws them in her notebook but when she glances over she flashes back to when she used to be married to Tom. Rachel always wanted to get pregnant and it never happened. No matter what she and Tom did, it never worked. She turned to drinking and her life began to spiral out of control. Rachel is a full on alcoholic and always looks like she has been crying and her eyes bloodshot.
(Side note) I really liked how the costume and makeup crew made her look like an alcoholic. It wasn’t too over the top, but you can tell an alcoholic by how they dress, how their face looks and how they act. In my opinion, Blunt did a great job making this believable.
Rachel’s alcoholic tendencies make her unstable and often she blacks out from the alcohol. She sometimes cannot decipher between reality and the thoughts that go on in her head.
One day while stopped at her favorite spot she sees Megan with a man. A man who is not her husband. A man she’s never seen before. She sees them kiss and embrace. Rachel’s fantasy of the perfect loving couple comes crashing down as she remembers the feeling of being cheated on herself. In fact she is so upset by this she talks about dragging Megan out by the hair and smashing her head in.
In a huff Rachel gets off of the train and stumbles in a drunken rage towards the street where she once lived. She plans on confronting Megan. She gets as far as shrieking at Megan calling her a whore. Things go fuzzy and black out.
Rachel wakes up suddenly after her black out. Her hands and head are covered in blood, and she cannot remember a thing. She gets glimpses of bits and pieces. Blurred images and shadowed faces of the previous night swim in Rachel’s head but nothing is concrete.
Over the weekend Megan is reported missing and Rachel starts to wonder if she may have done something bad during her blackout. And we lead into the rest of this psychological film.
There are some confusing parts with the timelines jumping back and forth and from person to person. It becomes clear near the end that things aren’t exactly what you think they are with Rachel. While watching the film I really felt sorry for Rachel. Which may be the reason I felt Blunt did a great job in the role.
This film isn’t what you think it is and you really have to pay attention while watching. If you can do that, you won’t be disappointed. The cast was superb in their roles and the three female leads really give their characters life. I suggest you watch this film without having expectations of it being a thriller like the trailer suggests. To me, it bordered on thriller and drama. It definitely has some psychological thriller parts to it. The Girl on the Train is not as suspenseful as the trailer wants you to believe. Like I said: pay attention and you won’t be disappointed.
