The Girl on the Train ***
Apparently Emily Blunt is far too attractive (and slim) to be author Paula Hawkins‘s alcoholic anti-heroine Rachel, the pickled protagonist of bestseller The Girl on the Train. The gripping tale is also set in upstate New York, rather than London that has irked some fans of the novel.
The fact is, this twisty-turny mystery drama of love, heartache, deceit and murder could be transferred to anywhere in the world – hence the original text’s clear catch. It’s also a very compelling modern story of female struggle. All three women in the tale – Rachel, Anna (now married to Rachel’s ex and living in the former martial home, played by Rebecca Ferguson) and Megan (the beautiful girl next door to Anna who goes missing, played by Haley Bennett) – are battling demons, even in the most idyllic of surroundings, but share a common thread. It’s this journey of discovery that director Nate Taylor takes us on, and Secretary scriptwriter Erin Cressida Wilson cleverly relays through plot backtracks and the like.
The gripping nature of the novel is not altogether lost on film. Indeed, getting your head around the new setting takes a bit of time. Blunt is so curiously ‘haunting looking’ that she instantly carries our interest on her obsessive train journeys each day, making us sympathise, dislike then empathise once again. She plays the perfect flawed character, both physically and mentally in this. Who cares about her look? What does an ‘alcoholic’ actually look like anyway? It is quite an accomplished performance for the Brit actress who remains British in this, as to not totally alienate Hawkins fans.
The apparent difference is how ‘tame’ Taylor’s interpretation is – until the end part of the film when the explanantions and replays flow forth, as do the ugly episodes. It’s here that Justin Theroux as Rachel’s ex and Anna’s hubby really injects the malevolence. In opting not to go too sinister though, Taylor has sanitized events somewhat when a more alarming approach was needed to do justice to Hawkins’s work. The surroundings and ‘Nancy Meyers home interiors’ do not create enough foreboding, just infer something is rotten at the core. It is this malice that Taylor misses.
The Girl on the Train can be enjoyed as it stands, with Blunt doing justice to Rachel being the most important thing. It’s just fans might feel out of sorts and less than freaked out than when they read the book.
3/5 stars
By @FilmGazer
