Grade (B-)
An interesting mystery that entertains despite a third-act drop off.
“THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN” was a movie that drew some curiosity. Directed by Tate Taylor, the film stars; Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Theroux, Luke Evans and Edgar Ramirez.
Now this movie looked like one that would have an interesting story, one that could weave a fun mystery, but the negative reviews rolled in one after the other. Emily Blunt was in the lead, she is more than a capable actress and can easily carry a film so when I went into this movie it was suddenly more out of curiosity than it had been out of sheer interest.
The story follows a divorced woman who has turned to alcohol to cope with her problems and while she rides the train to work each day, she looks out at the passing homes and imagines the lives of the people she sees. One day she sees something that will pull her into a mystery revolving around a missing person, a case that will send a ripple of effects through her own life forever.
In my opinion this was not a bad film by any means, it was flawed and far from perfect but it was as equally far from being bad. The story was intriguing, you can quickly connect with the main character played by Blunt. You can see she is scarred from her past and as the layers of the story peel by you get to see why in a timely manner.
The performances were all very good. I thought Blunt’s performance was fantastic, and feel she brought all the emotion this character needed to sell her as a tormented woman. Blunt was captivating in this role to me and through her performance, you can feel the pain in her life, in a way the writing could not have delivered on its own.
The rest of the cast were all very good as well. Bennett, Ramirez, Ferguson, Theroux and Evans all come in to give this story a unique collection of vastly different characters. They all pull off the needed complexity to build unpredictability to their true intentions, something I felt kept the entertainment of the story high.
Now this was not a perfect film. The story was a little, messy, at times. When the first-act gets going many layers are peeled back very quickly and it did feel jumbled in the beginning but but the time the second-act gets going, most of the picture has been painted for you to build off the foundations of the set-up. It could have been done cleaner however, to allow for a smooth flow from a viewer stand-point.
The third-act was enjoyable, it does have a couple layers it doesn’t need and it did feel slightly routine, but to me it was still more than a suitable closing to an intriguing mystery/thriller. The highly negative reviews threw me off, I did enjoy this film, it delivered what the trailers made it look like. If you like romance mysteries, with complex characters that are hard to read, you will find this one fun to sit back and watch unfold. It’s well-crafted, delivered many great performances, doesn’t just go through the motions, and will certainly entertain if you are in the mood for a story like this.
Time: 112 min
MPAA Rating: R (For violence, sexual content, language and nudity)
