The Girl on the Train Review

The Girl on the Train is a suspenseful mystery based on the novel by Paula Hawkins. The story follows Rachel (Emily Blunt), a broken divorcee that spends her time travelling on a train. She does this twice a day lost in the world and often wondering about the lives of those she passes.

After some time of doing so she becomes obsessed with a couple that seem in love and this only continues to drive her on a downward spiral. She begins drinking even more and eventually is led to a black out scenario. She awakens covered with blood and dirt having little recollection of what happened aside from small glimpses of that night.

In her search for what happened it turns out that Megan (Haley Bennett), the girl that emulates the perfect life Rachel dreams of has disappeared and that she herself might have made that happen. From there the story follows mostly Rachel as she tries to piece everything together while also giving the audience glimpses into the lives of the other women involved.

Emily Blunt was absolutely spectacular in her role of Rachel, a broken and seemingly violent alcoholic that attempts to deal with the reality of her sad life. Her performance was perfect and balanced just the right amount of obsession creating a compelling character. The other involved characters were also solid though I felt that there could have been more time focused to the full cast.

This is mostly to do with the big revelation not being a huge surprise due to the limited number of individuals involved and they could have done better in hiding it. The film looked decent though it featured mostly close-up shots to create suspense and panic neglecting to have any styled moments.

The Conclusion

I thoroughly enjoyed The Girl on the Train finding it to be a great and suspenseful film. While it could have held onto its secrets a bit better there were some later things that still revealed themselves right to the end. I found that Emily Blunt had a really strong performance with this character capturing the broken individual quite well and helping to draw extra levels of suspense with it.

I also felt that the general story kept a good pace and the small looks at the other characters helped fill out the story. It would have been nice to have more time with them in order to keep certain aspects hidden though it was still fine. Fans of suspense and mystery will enjoy this story and I found it to be an excellent film.

The Girl on the Train Review at Theater with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by NBC Universal

Rating Overall: 8.5