Movie Review: The Girl On The Train

One of my favorite books from the year 2015 was Paula Hawkins' fast-paced thriller The Girl On The Train. So when it was announced that a movie adaptation of the book would be made, I was very excited to see how it would turn out. I finally got the chance to watch it a few days ago, and wanted to share my thoughts about it here on my blog.
The Girl On The Train follows the character of Rachel, who is recently divorced and self-medicates by drinking heavily. Every day she commutes into the city on the same train and fantasizes about a couple she sees along the route. Their life appears perfect, but one day Rachel sees something shocking from her seat on the train. She quickly gets ensnared in the resulting mystery and begins to discover what really happened.
My initial reaction to The Girl On The Train being made into a movie was mostly positive, and I was actually really pumped about seeing the story on-screen. What made the announcement even better was the casting of Emily Blunt as Rachel, as she is an actress whom I find rarely disappointing. There was a lot of initial skepticism about this film taking place in the United States as opposed to England where the book is set. I actually found that this location change did not hinder the movie at all, but sadly it did let me down in a lot of other aspects.
Essentially the movie is just a watered down, sped-up version of the book with a lot of shots of Emily Blunt looking extremely depressed. If you've read the book, there is nothing at all surprising in the plot and you will be mildly bored through the whole film. If you haven't read the book, then this movie will most likely be a mediocre thriller at best. The acting was very mixed; while Emily Blunt did a great job portraying Rachel, I found Edgar Ramirez and Laura Prepon to be especially cringe-worthy in The Girl On The Train. Another part of the movie that was executed poorly was the feeling surrounding the three main female characters. I loved how the book made them all out to be incredibly flawed and made the reader question their disposition. What the movie does is overlook this nuanced characterization altogether and instead pit the three women against a single "bad guy" that is the movie's only villain. What made the book so great was that everyone had the potential to be evil; there wasn't the generic plot of "good characters" versus "bad characters."
Overall, The Girl On The Train was not the thrilling, edge-of-your-seat blockbuster that I had hoped it would be. The few positives that this movie possesses, such as Emily Blunt playing the lead and its eerie aesthetic, are almost completely lost by just how unexciting everything else is. The Girl On The Train had potential but got derailed somewhere between conception and delivery.

Rating: R

Genre: Thriller/Mystery

Run Time: 112 minutes

Release Date: October 7, 2015

My Rating: ★★☆☆☆