The psychological thriller drama
'THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN' which I saw in the week is based on the best selling book of the same name by British author Paula Hawkins. The book was Hawkins debut, and it remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for 13 weeks upon release in early 2015, and by August this year had sold eleven million copies worldwide. Now coming to a big screen near you, the book has been adapted for the big screen by Erin Cressida Wilson and Directed by Tate Taylor (who most recently brought us the James Brown bio-pic
'Get On Up' and before that
'The Help') for a budget of US$45M, and having so far taken US$50M since its premier in London in late September and its US release on 7th October.
Starring Emily Blunt as Rachel Watson (the girl on the train!) - a divorcee with a drink problem who left her husband Tom (Justin Theroux) after she caught him cheating on her with their real estate agent Anna Boyd (Rebecca Fergusson). Before their marriage came to an end, we learn through various flashbacks that Rachel was prone to getting into the drink after which she would invariably black-out with little recollection of the events that occurred during her drunken stupor. It would take her husband to recount her antics after the fact, and she claims that this led to their separation, Tom drifting off the matrimonial path with another, plus the fact that she is unable to bear children.
She travels to and from work every day on a train, always sits by the window and gazes out as she passes her former home that Tom now occupies with his new wife Anna and their young daughter Evie. She is bitter, as she drinks from her water bottle that is secretly filled with gin or vodka, and doodles pencil drawings in her note book. Tom's neighbours are Scott and Megan Hipwell (Luke Evans and Haley Bennett respectively) who seem to have the perfect, loving, caring marriage that Rachel fantasises about to the point of obsession from the window of her passing train. The reality is however, something quite different, as Scott is controlling, aggressive and the typical Alpha male, whereas Megan is detached, resentful and carrying on with various other men behind Scottt's back - including her shrink - Dr. Kamal Abdic (Edgar Ramirez).
One day however, en route to work gazing out of her window seat she witnesses something suspicious and shocking - Megan and Abdic kissing and embracing on the balcony of her home, which turns her image of their prefect life into a tailspin. How could Megan do such a thing, how could she betray her loving husband, and who is that man she was with? After another day on the turps, she confronts Megan on the way home from work in a tunnel under the railway line, only to wake some hours later in her room covered in blood and with no memory of how she got there, the cause of the blood, the head injury she has sustained and the bruising to her upper body.
Subsequently it is made known that Megan is missing and is later presumed dead. Rachel is questioned by Detective Sergeant Riley (Allison Janney) who suspects that she may be covering something up because of her recent activity, including allegedly stalking her ex-husband and his new family, harassing them with incessant phone calls, and that she was actually fired from her place of work a year ago because of her drinking problem, despite the fact that she travels into 'work' everyday on the train, masquerading that she is still gainfully employed. Rachel claims she has no memory of any events surrounding the time of Megan's disappearance and whilst the Detective remains unconvinced, she needs evidence . . . which she doesn't have.
Rachel, approaches Scott under the guises that she and Megan were friends and that Megan confided in her about an affair, to which Scott puts two and two together and determines that the other man is Abdic. Rachel identifies Abdic as the man she saw on the balcony earlier with Megan. Rachel then schedules an appointment with Abdic and speaks to him of her failed relationship with Tom and her drunken actions at an office party hosted by his boss Martha (Lisa Kudrow) that resulted in him getting fired.
Later, having another martini before returning home, gradually Rachel has flashbacks of that evening in the tunnel. She returns to that same place and has visions of Anna and Tom in the tunnel and shouting abuse at Anna before being set upon and beaten up at which point she blacks out. Anna becomes increasingly suspicious of Rachel after seeing her in the neighbourhood several times and in close proximity to her former home, but the Detective dismisses these thoughts on the grounds again of needing hard evidence, and Tom too downplays that Rachel could have any involvement in Megans's disappearance.
Megan's partially decomposed body is found later on in the woods and it is determined in the autopsy that she was pregnant but the baby was neither Scott's or Abdic's. Scott therefore becomes a prime suspect and confronts Rachel with his knowledge that the two in fact had never met, and that Rachel was conspiring against him. He's not happy and he vents his anger on Rachel, but leaves before any real harm is done. Later, Rachel runs into Martha on the train and decides to confront Martha with an apology for her behaviour at that ill fated office party that led to her then husband Tom being fired. Martha is rather taken aback by her apology stating that her behaviour had nothing to do with it - she fell ill and was taken into a back room to recover - all perfectly innocent and acceptable. The reason why Tom was fired was because he
'couldn't keep his dick in his pants'. At this point it dawns on Rachel that Tom was manipulating her memories for his own gain and to cover up for his abuse of her, and not the other way around as she has believed all this time.
Anna meanwhile has become increasingly suspicious of her husband Tom, and tries to hack into his computer but fails repeatedly. She finds an old mobile phone in his brief case with voice mail messages and text messages to and from Megan. Anna deduces that Tom was in fact having an affair with Megan, who used to babysit for Tom and Anna until a short time ago before Megan broke off the arrangement rather abruptly, much to Anna's surprise at the time. Rachel comes to realise that Megan was in fact pregnant with Tom's baby and that Megan had told Abdic this news in confidence, and what she saw on the balcony that day was misinterpreted by her. More memories come flooding back to Rachel who now has clarity of vision about what happened in the tunnel that evening.
It seems that Rachel mistook Megan for Anna that evening in the tunnel, as she was walking towards Tom's car parked at the other end. It was Tom that beat up Rachel, which fuelled with alcohol caused her to black out, before driving off with Megan in his car. At this point they drive to the woods where Megan confronts Tom with the news that she is pregnant with his child. Tom is enraged and commands that Megan aborts the pregnancy as not only does he not want another child but can also ill afford another child, and he does not want the news of their affair surfacing. Megan is perplexed at this news and they argue, resulting in Tom physically shoving Megan off her feet causing her to fall backwards knocking her head on a rock. In a state of semi consciousness, Tom finishes off the job with a few well aimed blows to the head with another rock. To see how Tom gets his comeuppance you'll just have to see for yourself.
I was expecting more from this film I have to say. It jumps around all over the place, which I understand is the format of the book, but it makes for disjointed viewing here. Aside from Emily Blunt's performance, the remaining cast as strong as they are, are very one dimensional and difficult to warm to. There are parallel's here to be drawn with
'Gone Girl' which is a far superior film. If you have read the book then doubtless you'll flock to the movie theatre to see how the pages transfer to the big screen, but, you can wait to see it on your own small screen in the comfort of your own home on a Friday night with a pizza and a bottle 'o' red and save yourself the price of a ticket. The film has some redeeming features, most notably Blunt's performance as the downtrodden alcoholic neurotic fantasising voyeur, but the rest is fairly predictable and ho-hum!
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
