MOVIE REVIEW: THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (2016)

From IMDB:

The Girl on the Train is the story of Rachel Watson's life post-divorce. Every day, she takes the train in to work in New York, and every day the train passes by her old house. The house she lived in with her husband, who still lives there, with his new wife and child. As she attempts to not focus on her pain, she starts watching a couple who live a few houses down -- Megan and Scott Hipwell. She creates a wonderful dream life for them in her head, about how they are a perfect happy family. And then one day, as the train passes, she sees something shocking, filling her with rage. The next day, she wakes up with a horrible hangover, various wounds and bruises, and no memory of the night before. She has only a feeling: something bad happened. Then come the TV reports: Megan Hipwell is missing. Rachel becomes invested in the case and trying to find out what happened to Megan, where she is, and what exactly she herself was up to that same night Megan went missing.

47 Metascore From metacritic.com

Reviews 10 user | 64 critic

From Rotten Tomatoes:

Rachel, devastated by her recent divorce, spends her daily commute fantasizing about the seemingly perfect couple who live in a house that her train passes every day, until one morning she sees something shocking happen there and becomes entangled in the mystery that unfolds. Based on Paula Hawkins' bestselling novel.

Rating: R (for violence, sexual content, language and nudity)

Genre: Drama , Mystery & Suspense

Directed By: Tate Taylor

Written By: Erin Cressida Wilson

In Theaters: Oct 6, 2016 Wide

Runtime: 112 minutes

Studio: Universal Pictures

TOMATOMETER  52%

Average Rating: 5.7/10

Reviews Counted: 66

Fresh: 34

Rotten: 32

Critics Consensus: Emily Blunt's outstanding performance isn't enough to keep The Girl on the Train from sliding sluggishly into exploitative melodrama.

WANT TO SEE 98% want to see

User Ratings: 15,169

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN OPENS IN THE US ON THE 7th OF OCTOBER IN THE U.S. AND ON THE 6TH OF OCTOBER IN MALAYSIA. FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD FIND OUT HERE.

Meet Rachel, she's recently divorced and has a substance abuse problem... ©Universal Pictures

There are two other movies with the same title but you won't have heard of the other two...

In fact, I didn't even know they existed until I did a little search to find out about this movie. Truthfully, I didn't know about this movie until I knew I was going to watch it and I didn't know there was a book first either. So I saw this movie last night which means it's been a full 24 hours since I saw it. It opens today in Malaysia and in a little over a day in the US but if you've been curious about this movie I'm guessing you've already read some of the early reviews for it. My opinions of this movie won't diverge all that much from the general opinions found in those early reviews. 

Rachel on her daily commute sees Megan and begins to fantasize about who she is and the type of life she has. ©Universal Pictures

The book written by British writer Paula Hawkins was first published in January 2015 quickly became a bestseller and debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Fiction Best Sellers of 2015 list and remained at the top until April. Then about a year later it again went to the top of the best sellers list but this time reviewers began to comparisons between it and Gone Girl, claiming it to be the next Gone Girl. Gone Girl too became a movie in 2014 and went on to be nominated for several awards. Gone Girl was an incredible film. You can read my review of it here. 

She also passes the home of Tom and Anna. Tom used to be her husband and their house used to be her home. ©Universal Pictures

Unlike Gone Girl which took a bit more time to be picked up by the studios, DreamWorks Pictures acquired the film rights to the novel before the book was even available to the public in March 2014. By January 2015 while the public was falling in love with the book and putting it on the best sellers list, Erin Cressida Wilson was already working on the films screenplay. In May of the same year Tate Taylor was hired to direct and in the following months various actors and actresses were rumoured to be part of the production. Among them included Emily Blunt, Kate Mara, Rebecca Ferguson, Haley Bennett, Jared Leto, Chris Evans, Édgar Ramírez, Justin Theroux, Allison Janney, Lisa Kudrow, Luke Evans and Laura Prepon. Of course not everyone was available to be part of the final film. 

Then one day she decides to get off the train after a particularly bad day. ©Universal Pictures

So if you haven't read the book and have only seen the trailers then the only other clues you have regarding what this movie is about are the two things that are mentioned above, that it's the new Gone Girl and the title that mentions a girl on the train. With regards to Gone Girl this film shares a few similarities I guess. The tone of the two films are pretty similar. The two films have a gritty and tense atmosphere. They both throw all sorts of details at you to try and throw you off the path of the true criminal. Both use a fair bit of sex in the film to add another layer of complexity to the characters and their situations. As for the girl on the train, Emily Blunt plays the central character who rides the train from her home to work and back and is the one is the link to all the main players in this mystery. 

After which she gets a little visit from a detective. ©Universal Pictures

So here's what I enjoyed about the film.

1. The story wasn't too bad. Played out pretty nicely but if you were paying attention you could about two thirds of the way in figure out what really happened and who the culprit really is.
2. Emily Blunt is pretty amazing. 
3. Visually. Scenes nicely played out and paced. Tate Taylor and Charlotte Bruus Christensen did a pretty good job of keeping the scenes tense and gritty. 

After the detectives' visit Rachel decides to help this man out. ©Universal Pictures

A few things I didn't fancy much.

1. The balance between the characters or something like that. Emily Blunt was amazing but the others sort of were not. 
2. Things ended up being too melodramatic at times. Didn't suit the scenes so well or the film overall.

But in the end she's back on the train. ©Universal Pictures

Overall this was a pretty good story to watch, it was tense and as things played out you were kept guessing. But to compare it to Gone Girl is to flatter this movie a little too much. If I were to say how similar or close to Gone Girl this film is I'd probably say about 60% maybe. The thing or person that really drives this film is Emily Blunt without her I don't think this film would be as entertaining or watchable. But since I did enjoy it I'm going to give it a decent 3.2 out of 5.

Check out the trailer. 

MUCH THANKS GO TO BFM RADIO AND UIP MALAYSIA FOR THE PREVIEW PASSES!!