Review: The Girl on the Train

-
Do the creep...

Rachel is an alcoholic. She spends her days riding the train back and forth to Manhattan. She watches the same house every time she passes and looks at a woman, Megan (Haley Bennett) She envisions her as "Jess" with the perfect life and perfect husband. Rachel used to live two doors down from her, when she was married to Tom. (Justin Theroux) Now he's married to Anna (Rebecca Ferguson) with an infant daughter. She drunk dials them often. One day, She sees Megan with another man, then she goes missing. Soon Rachel is questioned on the disappearance.

This was one of my favorite books I read last year. I love mysteries and this was a good one. Then the trailer came out a few months ago and it got the Lifetime treatment. It was so disappointing. I'm happy to say that the movie isn't nearly as bad as the trailer suggested, but it did have some problems.

The direction is weak. I felt like they made Megan more salacious. Yes, she was having an affair in the book, but I felt like they focused every scene of hers on her overt sexuality and not why she was doing the things she did. She gets her moment to explain eventually, but it feels overshadowed by the way they decided to handle the flashback that accompanies it Then there's the annoying change of location. The book took place in England. Rachel is still English in the movie, I have no idea why they moved it to New York. 

The use of title cards to introduce characters and periods of time in the past was helpful. It worked for me since that's how the book was, but I don't know how that will translate for other views. If there's one thing this film has to its advantage, it's the acting. Emily Blunt is absolute perfection. Rachel is a mess, and Blunt doesn't hold back. It's written all over her face (and there's a lot of close up shots in this movie..almost too many) Ferguson also plays Anna exactly as I pictured her. Theroux on the other hand was kind of awful. Chris Evans originally had this role, and he's better suited for it. Theroux was miscast.

Recommended: Sure. Not a bad movie, just not as good as I wanted it to be. 

Grade: C+

Memorable Quote: "Your alimony is paying for tickets to nowhere? - Cathy (Laura Prepon)


Comments

  1. MyerlaOctober 11, 2016 at 6:49 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MyerlaOctober 11, 2016 at 6:50 AM

    If the film was set in England with the train service going to London you would hear "The 8:04 train to London Paddington is delayed by approximately 10 minutes because of leaves on the track" or Rachel wouldn't get on the right train because of the recent strikes. I'm joshing, of course.

    I agree that Emily Blunt was terrific, personally I feel Haley Bennett, she's exactly how I imagined Megan. I feel Scott was massively underwritten in the film.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamOctober 11, 2016 at 6:57 AM

      They made Scott too obvious for what he ended up being, IMO.

      Delete
  3. UnknownOctober 11, 2016 at 8:57 AM

    I'm still salty about that location change!
    Going to see this myself tomorrow, and I'm still looking forward to it, despite the lukewarm reviews. It was a really good book!
    - Allie

    ReplyDelete
  4. Courtney YoungOctober 11, 2016 at 11:41 AM

    This is just a film I have absolutely no desire to see. The trailer didn't sell me at all; maybe the awkward and misused Kanye song did it in for me :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamOctober 12, 2016 at 6:55 AM

      The trailer was awful. It killed nearly all my excitement for this film.

      Delete
  5. Tanner JonesOctober 11, 2016 at 2:32 PM

    Aside from the blatant underuse of Allison Janney, the most frustrating thing about this film was the big reveal/flashback. They spent what felt like 40 minutes filling in holes that I was able to fill in as soon as I knew for certain that the husband did it. The film often assumed an ignorant audience.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamOctober 12, 2016 at 6:56 AM

      I blame that on the casting. Theroux already looks like a serial killer. People suspect him just while looking at him, while the book makes you think a bit longer.

      Delete
  6. s.October 12, 2016 at 4:15 PM

    Leto was supposed to be Scott, what a waste :) Good to read Blunt is great although she still looks too good for that part

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamOctober 13, 2016 at 6:43 AM

      I forgot Leto was supposed to be in this too. Scott was underused, but it would've been nice to see him in there nonetheless.

      She looks terrible in this movie, they don't do her any favors lol.

      Delete
    2. s.October 13, 2016 at 7:36 AM

      Yeah but still her hair is like better than mine and I spend time trying to fix that shit, sober :lol: Is Kanye's annoying song from the railer in this movie? hopefully not

      Delete
    3. Brittani BurnhamOctober 13, 2016 at 8:01 AM

      I don't think so, I didn't notice it.

      Delete
  7. m.brownOctober 13, 2016 at 9:27 AM

    I'm not sure if I'm going to catch this one, but I've definitely set my expectation to LOW. I didn't read the book, but I love Blunt...so I might end up liking it, huh?

    Oh, but there's too much sexiness, right? Sounds like a real bummer. *leaves work immediately*

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sonia CercaOctober 15, 2016 at 2:30 AM

    I'm yet to read the book (I know, shame on me!), and I still wanted to give the film a try because of the book's reputation, but now I'm not that sure anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousOctober 24, 2016 at 5:50 PM

    I love how the internet was trying to make Blunt an Oscar contender for this.

    I will see it...eventually, but the marketing makes this look so trashy and dumb.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more