Seen at the Roxy Cinema in Nowra
Bea
says: I had heard a great deal about
this deeply anticipated film prior to seeing it this past Sunday morning at the
Roxy cinema in Nowra. I had heard it
reviewed on ABC’s The Mix, and on BBC’s Women’s Hour, and everybody seems to be
talking about it. So despite not having
read the book, I roughly knew the story, and I knew some of the twists the plot
might take. I knew that the central characters
were all flawed, that it was in the vein of Gone Girl, and that the setting had
been moved from the UK to New York State for the purposes of the film.
The story
did draw me in – I quite like a good thriller-style film, even though I could
guess where it might be going, and in that regard it is a diverting film,
beautifully shot in a picturesque location, and with strong performances from
the cast. They were lucky to get Emily
Blunt for the lead – she played it very well indeed; in less assured hands it
may have descending into cliché.
Because it
was all rather derivative to be honest – a mash up of Fatal Attraction and Gone
Girl, with reference to some classic film noir as well – Gaslight, for
example. What disappointed me from a
female writer and a strong female production and direction team, was how
stereotyped it all was.
The women are
anxious and neurotic. The two women who
can’t, or don’t, have children are presented with deep personal and
psychological problems as a result. Working
is optional for women, it seems. It was
like something out of Mad Men.
Thank
goodness for Allison Janney’s police detective, the only vaguely liberated role
model amongst them – and even she was told what to do at one point by her male
colleague. And yes the “truth” is
unravelled, and a particular man gets his just desserts, but the message isn’t
very feminist – the female characters only take control out of desperation, not
out of good decision making.
Don’t expect
anything creative or new – but it is diverting if you need an absorbing story
for a couple of hours.
***
Cecil says: I also
thought Emily Blunt played the drunk, hallucinating, traumatised train
passenger well. Whoever did her makeup for the opening scenes and later did a
great job making her look dry-lipped, gaunt and bleary-eyed. It takes a few
scenes for us to realise her problem is drink, but she immediately hits the
viewer as someone deeply troubled.
Opening
scenes are always a key pointer to how a film will pan out for me, and the
start of The Girl on the Train doesn’t disappoint. I didn’t recognise the small
town on the banks of the Hudson, but the buildings along the track were classic
hundred year old beauties, like those we spotted on our first weekend away in
the States six years ago when we took a train that slowly crawled through
Williamsburg.
I actually
didn’t know this film was adapted from a book about a British story set around
London. From all my commuting into London, it’s really hard to imagine how
these wealthy middle class American characters were represented in the original
book.
The story is
certainly gripping, though the overall tone was a tad darker than I would have
chosen for a bright spring morning. Blunt acts well, though there are times
when you wonder if some twists are really based on reality: why didn’t she call
cop Allison Janney earlier than the moment when he life was suddenly at risk? And
I found it hard to imagine an experienced therapist letting himself get drawn
into such an intimate and boundary-less relationship with one of his female
clients.
Great also
to see one of the less visible actors from Friends doing something different.
Took me a double take to realise it was actually her…
***.5
